Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers were founded in 1970 as an NBA expansion franchise. When a name was needed, a contest was held, and “Cavaliers” was chosen from thousands of entries. The word conjured images of bold horsemen, gallant fighters, and noble defenders — a team that would, in the words of the winning entry, “represent a group of daring, fearless men whose life’s pact was never surrender, no matter what the odds.” The Cavaliers name gave the team a sense of chivalry and fight, which fit Cleveland’s gritty, hardworking spirit.

Cleveland itself was laid out in 1796 by Moses Cleaveland, a surveyor for the Connecticut Land Company, on the edge of the Connecticut Western Reserve at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. (The city later lost the extra “a” in his surname — a typesetter’s squeeze in an early newspaper masthead helped fix “Cleveland” in public use.) Its position on Lake Erie and at a river mouth made it a natural port. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 plugged Cleveland straight into New York and the Atlantic, turning the town into a gateway for goods and for migrants heading west. As the 19th century wore on, ore from the Mesabi and Marquette ranges and coal from Appalachia flowed through the lakes and rails into the city’s mills. Iron and steel, shipbuilding, railroads and, later, oil — John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil here in 1870 — pushed Cleveland into the first rank of America’s industrial cities. Euclid Avenue’s “Millionaires’ Row” told the story: vast fortunes built on furnaces, docks and deals.

The city’s population swelled with waves of Irish, German, Polish, Slovak and other Eastern European migrants, then, in the 20th century, the Great Migration brought Black Americans north from the Jim Crow South, reshaping neighbourhoods, culture and politics. Cleveland’s boom also had a cost. By the mid-20th century, heavy industry scarred river and air; in 1969 the Cuyahoga famously caught fire — an image that shamed the nation and helped spur environmental reform, the creation of the EPA and the Clean Water Act. Since then, the river has been steadily cleaned and re-used as a civic asset. Deindustrialisation in the 1970s–80s hit hard, but the city rebuilt around medicine (the Cleveland Clinic), higher education, arts and museums — not least the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on the lakefront, a nod to the city’s long broadcasting and music ties.

The Cavaliers’ badge and colours reflect that same strength. The modern crest uses a shield — defence, resilience, civic pride — with a sword cutting through a basketball, a neat visual for a “cavalier”. The wine and gold keep faith with the club’s roots, and feel right for a city of furnaces and foundries — metal, heat and tradition.

On the court, the Cavaliers endured lean years but built a loyal base. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mark Price, Brad Daugherty and Larry Nance made them dangerous, though they often ran into Michael Jordan’s Bulls. Then came LeBron James, the hometown prodigy from nearby Akron, who turned the Cavs into a global story. He hauled the team to its first NBA Finals in 2007, a leap that outpaced the roster around him.

To see why the 2016 title meant so much, you have to feel Cleveland’s long sporting pain. Browns fans lived through “The Drive” (John Elway, 98 yards, 1986 AFC title game), “The Fumble” a year later, and “Red Right 88” before that. The baseball club fell short in extra innings in the 1997 World Series. Even the Cavs had “The Shot” — Jordan over Craig Ehlo in 1989. For half a century the label stuck: a cursed sports town.

That’s why 2016 mattered. With LeBron back, alongside Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, the Cavaliers met the 73–9 Golden State Warriors in the Finals. Down 3–1, Cleveland clawed back: LeBron’s chasedown block, Kyrie’s step-back three, and a Game 7 that felt like the city’s whole century turning over. It was more than a ring. It was release.

And it also fit the older story. Cleveland’s history is canals and ore boats, rail hubs and refineries, strikes and songs, a river set on fire and then made right again. The Cavaliers stand in that line: stubborn, proud, and built to endure. They are Erie Canal trade routes and Rockefeller’s oil deals, steel mills and immigrant sweat, The Drive and The Shot, LeBron’s block and Kyrie’s three. Their badge is a shield and sword, a promise to stand and fight. In Cleveland, to be a Cavalier means you keep going — no matter the odds.