Ted Turner’s death at 87 has reopened a vault of stories that explain how he approached ownership, branding, and the strange art of reshaping a struggling franchise. One detail stands out for how close it came to altering baseball history in Atlanta: he nearly renamed the Braves.
A Name That Almost Didn’t Stick
In 1976, as Turner finalized his purchase of the team, he openly floated the idea of calling them the Eagles. The reasoning was straightforward and very much in line with how he thought about sports properties at the time. Atlanta already had the Falcons in the NFL and the Hawks in the NBA. Turner saw an opportunity to align the city’s teams under a shared identity, something cohesive, something easy to market. The Braves name itself wasn’t the issue. He wasn’t reacting to controversy or dissatisfaction. He was thinking about structure, about presentation, and how a city’s teams could feel connected.
He even acknowledged the logistical hurdle, noting it could take a year to make the change official. That detail suggests this wasn’t a passing idea. It had enough weight for him to consider the legal timeline. Local coverage treated the proposal with a mix of curiosity and humor. One columnist suggested “Firebirds” instead, referencing the NHL’s Flames, who were still in Atlanta at the time.
A Franchise Used to Reinvention
Historically, the Braves name had never been permanent. The franchise cycled through identities in earlier decades: Beaneaters, Red Stockings, Doves, Rustlers, Bees. Stability only really took hold later on, and even then, success was inconsistent. By the mid-1970s, the team was coming off a season where it finished more than 40 games out of first place. The name “Braves” carried history, but not dominance.
They had won two World Series titles under the name, along with several pennants, but long stretches of mediocrity defined the team’s reputation. In Boston, they often trailed behind the Red Sox in relevance. Even after moving to Atlanta, postseason appearances were rare. The name didn’t yet carry the weight it would later earn.
The Decision That Defined the Braves
Turner ultimately left the name untouched. What followed reshaped its meaning. Through national broadcasts on TBS, the Braves reached audiences far beyond Georgia. The team became a regular presence in households across the country. As the roster strengthened, the identity solidified. Hall of Fame players, a dominant pitching rotation in the 1990s, and multiple championships turned the Braves into a fixed brand rather than a flexible one.
The instinct behind Turner’s original idea didn’t disappear entirely. When Atlanta was awarded an NHL expansion team in 1999, he also named them the Thrashers under his ownership. Another bird was added to the city’s lineup. The alignment he envisioned in 1976 came to fruition, just not through a baseball name change.
