Donner Pass Derby is a bad name for a Sacramento Republic-Reno 1868 rivalry

Sacramento Republic FC and Reno 1868 FC jointly announced today the results of the “Name the Rivalry” contest and the result can be summed up in one word: shocking.

First and foremost, anyone from either the Sacramento or Reno area surely knows the tragic story of the Donner Party. For those out of the area or simply unaware, a group of gold seeking settlers were caught off-guard by the frigid conditions while attempting to traverse the Sierra Nevadas and needed to resort to cannibalism for survival. Pretty horrific stuff right?

It only makes sense that the budding rivalry between clubs on the rise would absurdly be named after such a sad event. Nothing says top-level athletic competition and fiery fan banter quite like an episode of desperate human-consuming.

Now that the grotesqueness of my point has been driven needlessly too far, let’s focus on how we got here.

Fans of both clubs were encouraged to submit their suggestions as to what the growing rivalry should be called. Given the results of most naming contests across the internet, I suppose I should not be surprised at the final selection given the choices presented within the final twitter poll.

Let’s run down those options quickly. Gold and Silver Cup (about as boring as it gets), Sierra Showdown (in my opinion the best choice of the four), Battle for I-80 (hard pass) and of course the macabre winner “Donner Pass Derby.”

Surely two fanbases with such intense passion would select an appropriate name, but alas, the curse of the Twitter masses struck, and we are left with this poor choice.

I know I cannot be the only one who wants a do-over. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!