"Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh My!"

Sports nicknames are an untapped educational resource gold mine!  As an early primary school age child I had a social studies foundation without attending any class.  Knowing the teams I had a good idea geographically where teams were located and by their nicknames I often knew something about the city/region.  As evidence here are some things I knew/learned growing up.

Canadian Teams:
Edmonton Eskimos:  Canada's "northernmost" major city, approaching the edge of the tundra and land of the Inuit
Edmonton Oilers:  Alberta is Canada's oil capital
Calgary Stampeders:  home of Canada's largest stampede and one of the most famous in the world.
Swift Current Broncos (junior hockey):  western/cowboy/ranching area
Steinbach Wheelers:  Steinbach is also known as "The Automobile City" because of it proportionally high number of automobile dealerships
Kleefeld Stingers:  Manitoba's honey capital
University of Manitoba Bisons:  beast of the prairies, Manitoba's official symbol

American Teams:
Local animals:  Miami Dolphins, Seattle Seahawks, Phoenix Roadrunners, California Golden Seals
Midwest/plains ag scene:  Nebraska Cornhuskers, Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M Aggies
Industrial connection:  Pittsburg Steelers, Hartford Whalers, Indianapolis Racers, Houston Oilers, Milwaukee Brewers
Geographic features:  Miami Hurricanes, Phoenix Suns, Colorado Rockies (NHL), Minnesota North Stars, New York Islanders (located on Long Island)
Wild west:  Dallas Cowboys, Oklahoma Sooners (I didn't know what a Sooner was but recognized the "wagon"), Denver Broncos, Houston Colt .45's
Cultural heritage:  Minnesota Vikings, Boston Celtics, Penn Quakers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, New York Yankees
Indigenous heritage:  University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux, Florida State Seminoles

The above illustrates what I knew/learned as a school ager and not meant to be an exhaustive list.

Being familiar with sports nicknames helped me on the civics portion of my naturalization oral exam.

Sports team nicknames are a readily available educational resource with the bonus being that many students follow sports thus connecting the classroom to the "real world.".