After the Washington Redskins became the Washington Football Team, many speculated who would become the next American team to change its nickname. The Cleveland Indians? The Kansas City Chiefs? The Atlanta Braves?
Turns out, it was none of those. And it wasn't an American team.
Simon Fraser University announced Wednesday its sports teams will no longer be known as the Clan.
Simon Fraser, the NCAA's only Canadian university, went by the nickname Clan for 55 years, an homage to the Scottish heritage of its founder, explorer Simon Fraser.
However, the school is not retiring the name out of pressure from Scottish heritage groups.
Instead, the school is looking to end its mistaken association with the Ku Klux Klan.
"The primary factor contributing to the decision was the well-being of student athletes, many of whom reported that the current name had caused them to experience unsafe situations, upsetting conversations and other harm," the school said in a statement.
"We've heard increasingly from student athletes [the name is] a burden," said SFU president Andrew Petter. "We have many more Black athletes and athletes of colour, this name is not going to serve them well… we'd like them to have a name that they'd be proud of."
Though the words are obviously spelled differently and represent entirely different groups, when spoken, the phrase "The Clan will be here next week" has but one connotation in American -- and, apparently, even Canadian -- culture.
An 8-month study commissioned by the university found the name to be a burden on the athletics department and the university, and also found that the university's athletics department and individual teams distanced from the Clan nickname.
In fact, "Clan" is nowhere to be found on Simon Fraser's football uniforms, nor its Twitter account.
Naturally, as Canada's only NCAA team, SFU has embraced the Maple Leaf as its totem, using #ProtecttheLeaf as its rallying cry.
Simon Fraser teams will simply be known as "Simon Fraser" or "SFU" until a new nickname is chosen later this year.