Chicago White Stockings

White Stockings or "Chicago White Stockings" was an original name of two professional baseball clubs in Chicago, Illinois, mainly the two Major League Baseball clubs in both the older National League (1876) and later American League (1901) that operate today:

• Chicago Cubs. The first professional baseball club in the city joined the previous National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP, 1857–1871) for the 1870 season with the nickname "White Stockings" and was a founding charter member in 1871 of the subsequent all-professional National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP / also known as the National Association), which existed 1871–1875. Following the Great Chicago Fire of October 8–10, 1871, it built a new ballpark, where it hosted baseball games for two seasons before returning to the original playing field in 1874. It initiated the organization of the following National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs in 1876 (later simply called the National League). Originally called the White Stockings through to 1889, the nickname "Colts" temporarily supplanted the old "White Stockings" name. That club is now officially the Chicago Cubs, originally a nickname that supplanted Colts and other short-lived rival names of the Orphans and Remnants in the early 1900s.
• Chicago White Sox. The charter member franchise team (of 8) of the rival American League when it organized in 1901, now officially the Chicago White Sox, entered Chicago in 1900 with permission of its crosstown NL competitor of the Cubs, one condition being that it would not take the "Chicago" city name. So it adopted the old previous "White Stockings" name from the glory days of its rival. After a few years, that title was shortened, perhaps by reporters or headline writers.