'Nimrods' of rural Michigan famous, thanks to ESPN
Not in Watersmeet, a rural township of 1,500 on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where "Nimrods" is a badge of honor — the mascot at the local school, which serves all the grades and whose principal also doubles as coach and superintendent.
The oddball moniker now has become a claim to fame, thanks to a series of commercials on ESPN.
The cable-television network in late January began airing three 30-second spots featuring the Watersmeet Township Nimrods boys basketball team. The team is part of ESPN's "Without Sports" advertising campaign, which celebrates the social and cultural importance of athletics.
Two ads show the Nimrods playing a game as local residents voice pride in their team. In the other, 81-year-old Dale Jenkins — who played with the original Nimrods in the 1930s — sings the school fight song.
Each ends with the narrator asking, "Without sports, who would cheer for the Nimrods?"
The spots have struck a chord.
Watersmeet Township, a K-12 school with 228 students, has been deluged with requests for merchandise with the Nimrods logo — some coming from as far away as Germany. More than $35,000 in T-shirts, sweatshirts, coffee mugs and other items have been sold.
The team, Jenkins and coach, principal and superintendent George Peterson III will appear Monday on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
The town, in Ottawa National Forest about 8 miles north of the Wisconsin border, has basked in the attention — poetic justice after the ribbing they've taken, Peterson said Wednesday.
"It builds character for our kids," he said. "It's taught them a lesson that you need to find out about people before judging them."
But why not change the name later, when it became a putdown? When scenes from the sitcom "Cheers" showed Carla the barmaid deriding patrons Norm and Cliff as "nimrods?"
Peterson surveyed the students in the late 1980s. The response: Nimrods forever. "To them, the only insult was being asked" whether to abandon their beloved tradition, he said.
Excitement ran high when the ESPN crew visited in December. Jenkins was filmed singing the fight song while surrounded by fishing gear in his garage.
"Both of my daughters were cheerleaders when they were in school, and they were always coming home and singing the song," he said. "You can't forget it."
(The opening lines: "Watersmeet, the school that can't be beat, where the spirit's always high / Friends or foes, we have no cares or woes, for we are good sports, win or lose or tie.")
An added bonus for Watersmeet: At 17-5, the Nimrods had their best season in a decade, although it ended with a loss in the state playoffs Thursday night.
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