Kokomo’s new minor league baseball team name, the “Kokomo Creek Chubs,” has stirred controversy among fans and community members after its reveal on Halloween.
Kokomo’s previous baseball team, the Kokomo Jackrabbits, were forced to vacate after their lease expired. After a whole season without a baseball team playing in Kokomo Municipal Stadium, the city was ready to bring in a new team for the community to enjoy.
There was a community vote for what the new team’s name should be and it was revealed that the team will be called the Kokomo Creek Chubs.
The name comes from the “creek chub” fish which lives in Kokomo’s Wildcat Creek. Joe Thatcher, one of the team’s owners stated that the team’s name “captures the personality of Kokomo.”
Many community members have taken to social media to show Kokomo’s personality in full force. When you search Kokomo Creek Chubs on Facebook you see floods of community members joking about how the team’s name sounds like it is referencing slang for an erection.
Others have shared that they are concerned that the team’s name will chase fans off from showing up for games in the Summer 2026 season.
Fans are sharing their concerns that the team will not be taken seriously with a name like the Kokomo Creek Chubs and they may be right. Peggy Wood, who has previously sponsored players of the Kokomo Jackrabbits, said “if chub is slang… then I would not be in favor of that name.” She agreed with the sentiments online that “it could affect the turn out just because we could be ridiculed and made fun of.”
Others believe that a name as silly as the Kokomo Creek Chubs may bring in new fans to watch the team play.
IUK student Alonzo Clawson-Smith said in his opinion that the team’s name may “positively affect turn-out because bad publicity is good publicity.”
Moses Haynes and Ty Dills agreed that they “don’t like that name for the team” but that it is definitely “creative.”
An anonymous student said the new name may bring “more turn-out for the wrong reasons.” Anonymous laughed as they added that fans could cheer “get chubbed up” at games.
Ezra Dale’s first reaction to the name was that it was “Awful…” and Emaleigh Brooks added that it “doesn’t sound like they are talking about fish.”
Shanna Hackett said she thinks the name could “negatively affect turn-out, unless people think the name is a joke and go to laugh and then leave.”
Among college students, many agree that the name being so absurd might lead to more fans showing up for the team, but still most people said the name is not good. The name being so strange and giving people online and offline such strong reactions may just be what the team needs to boost ticket sales for the Summer 2026 season. Even if it is as a joke at first, the publicity surrounding the new minor league team could lead to more people, especially in the younger crowd, becoming Chub fans.
Was the decision to name the new team the Kokomo Creek Chubs a bad one to make? Especially with so much riding on this new team’s success in making the Kokomo Municipal Stadium a worthy endeavor, maybe a more professional name would be a smarter choice. We won’t know for sure how the name affects the team’s season until next summer, but in the meantime, go get yourself some Creek Chubs merch!
