What’s in a name? The simple and complicated story of why Racing Louisville is called “Racing”

Racing Louisville FC is quickly making a special place in our hearts. But where exactly does the team get its namesake?

We all know why our (newly) beloved club is named Racing Louisville FC. What may be foreign to some is why is “Racing” even a name that’s used in soccer. About six to twelve months ago when the buzz around a new NWSL team in Louisville started to pick up, one of my friends asked me about the name “Racing”. I was somewhat prepared to answer this question, and being an insufferable know-it-all who loves nothing better than sweeping a category while watching Jeopardy! I was happy to share what I knew.

First, the obvious one: the horse racing connection. I think he had that part figured out. He said he liked the original provisional name “Proof”, which frankly I didn’t much mind either. I then went on a brief (to me, but probably “sorry I asked” to him) explanation of the history of the “Racing” moniker. I am a very, very mildly interested follower of Racing 92, a French Rugby Union club in France who I had seen one lazy Saturday afternoon. The reason they caught my eye were their fantastic (let’s call it for reasons that will become apparent later) Cambridge Blue kits made by Le Coq Sportif. Don’t Google Cambridge Blue. You will get the wrong color. Check out the kit here. All of this to say that there is a history of sporting clubs named “Racing”. The interesting bit is almost none of them are English.

Racing Club Warwick FC, who plays in the NINTH level of the English Pyramid is the only association football (soccer) club in Great Britain. Oddly enough, it is named Racing due to it’s proximity to a racetrack. So why is the name Racing a semi-popular choice for a sporting club, especially in France? I don’t have a definite answer to that question but a little research has given me a pretty good idea.

First a quick diversion. Here’s a little bit about me. I am a self professed Anglophile. I love many things English. When I was young I devoured anything English that I could get, especially TV and music. I have a fantastic collection of Britpop CDs. I am a huge Arsenal fan. And I state these things not to make myself sound cool or unique, which my 18-21-year-old self definitely thought he was, but to show the longing to absorb a foreign culture as a rather common, and not new condition. Many historical volumes have been written about one culture-loving something new and shiny from a far-off land.

The relevance of this is that in the 19th Century, many French sporting enthusiasts became enamored with English sporting culture. The French had been for many centuries very protective of their language. However, English words or “Anglicisms” began to enter the lexicon. Based on a book Titled Anglicisms, Neologisms, and Dynamic French by Michael D. Pico de (1996), I was able to date the Anglicism’s “Racing” to 1851. The latter half of the 19th century is probably the key to the popularity of the name. The Racing Club de France was formed in 1886 as a multi-sport enterprise that included, football, rugby, basketball, swimming, athletics, tennis, and many more. The rugby and football clubs are now Racing Club de France Football who was a founding member of Ligue 1, but now plays in a lower division and the aforementioned Racing 92.

Both of these clubs’ uniforms are still that shade of blue mentioned above. This is an enduring homage to Cambridge’s rugby team, whom the founders of the club wanted to emulate. Two other French clubs, RC Lens, and Racing Club de Roubaix both use the Racing name due to the terms’ popularity and their time of founding.

The other famous “Racing” and the one that pops up most in the initial research into the name is Racing Club de Avellaneda from Argentina. Their colors are also blue but darker. The story there is that the two clubs that merged to form Racing Club de Avellaneda adopted tbe “Racing” name from a French auto racing magazine owned by Germán Vidaillac, a French owner of the newly established club: an Argentine Team, with an English name from a French magazine.

But why “Racing” and Football? The key there is partially that Racing Club de France was an omni-sport club and maybe the French took “racing” to mean athletic vs. actually participating in race. I honestly think like most slang, the word “Racing” was cool to whatever the 19th century French Anglophile equivalent of a 21 year old American Anglophile was. Racing…a cool name even a century and a half later.