Good Friday to everyone. It is September 25th, 2026. I'm Chris Roland, your host for Painted on the Tank. This is our second episode of the season, and it's the conclusion of our first round matchup between the Toutopolis Wooden Shoes and today's team, the Waters Meet Nimrods. And since the show is still relatively new, just a quick recap: this is a podcast of 32 teams. We're trying to find the best nickname in high school sports in America. Last week, as I mentioned, was Toutophilus Illinois wooden shoes. This week will be the Waters Meet Nimrods. And then we've got 30 other teams with some magnificent nicknames, some nicknames that just make you look twice when you look at those. And so without further ado, let's get into today's episode about the Waters Meet Illinois Nimrod. And I would like to say to start the episode, I was unsuccessful with reaching someone from Watersmeet High School or with the local school district in regard to collecting information and getting a perspective from them. I tried multiple attempts, but was unable to do so. So what I've gotten here today has come from some various sources online, and I'll cite those sources in the show notes at the conclusion of this episode. So where is this city that has the unusual nickname of the Nimrods? Waters Meet is located in the western part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, also known as the UP. It's near the Wisconsin border and is three hours north of the city of Green Bay. And it boasts a population of roughly 1,500 people today. The name Watersmeat sounds like there must be sources of water involved, and if you're thinking that, you're 100% correct. So the name Watersmeat comes from the English term for the confluence of rivers. It reflects the site's geographical significance where the Ontonegan River flows north to Lake Superior. The Paint River goes eastward to Lake Michigan, the Wisconsin River southward to the Mississippi, and Duck Creek joins the middle branch of the Ontonegan. And this connection of waterways made the location a key point along indigenous travel routes. It facilitated the Chippewa movement for trade, hunting, and seasonal migration across the upper Great Lakes watershed. That's really most of the information that you can find online about the community itself. So that's how we arrived at the name Waters Meet Michigan. So let's move on to that nickname of the Nimrods. According to the Michigan High School Athletic Association, the school first adopted the nickname in 1904 and has proudly displayed it for the last 122 years. You probably think, why would a team want to be called Nimrods, especially for 122 years? But if you're a Bible scholar, then you probably are familiar with that name and why it's not so much an insult as what we today think it to be. Nimrod was a mighty hunter, according to the book of Genesis. He was Noah's great grandson as well. And his name, Nimrod, and does have some translations where it says, we will rebel, is also a uh meaning of his name. Now Nimrod had some great characteristics, but he was not necessarily a uh a good guy. He is associated with the Tower of Babel. Jewish, Christian, and Islamic accounts all portray him more as a tyrant who led the builders at the Tower of Babel and turned people from God and even opposed Abraham, attempting unsuccessfully to kill him by fire. Upon seeing and hearing all these incidents, I think it's safe to say that Nimrod by by all accounts was a warrior, he was a hunter, he was not someone who most people messed with. So he had that stature about him, a strong stature, powerful. It's not today's definition or today's mindset when we hear that name Nimrod. So the question then arrives where, where and when did Nimrod turn into an insult in today's world? Because today when we hear that name, we think of a dim-witted person, someone of low intelligence. And Nimrod in the Bible definitely was not that type of individual. So how do we come about it? So it is believed that Looney Tunes, Looney Tunes cartoons has uh had a part in getting us to the point where we are today for Nimrod to be an insult. We have a little bit of Looney Tune controversy, I guess you could say, as who actually pinned that name on Elmer Fudd to begin with. It's often credited to Bugs Bunny as being the cartoon character who first called Elmer Fudd his rival, a Nimrod, as he was comparing a difference between the Mighty Hunter and Poor Little Nimrod, which was Elmer Fudd. But it's in fact Daffy Duck who first referred to Elmer Fudd as My Little Nimrod in the 1948 short cartoon, What Makes Daffy Duck? And that can be traced back by director Arthur Davis, the director of that episode. And that event occurred at the five-minute and thirty-four-second mark. His exact quote by Daffy Duck was precisely what I was wondering, my little Nimrod, as he was insinuating a slur or a derogatory statement or insult to Elmer Fudd. That name would continue on in the 50s with the Looney Tunes and with Bugs Bunny and an attempt to insult Elmer Fudd. And so it became popular among children and among our our culture at that time period, and it just continued to grow and to become more and more of a widely accepted derogatory name towards someone. It's amazing that a a cartoon, you know, the the influence that a cartoon could have on culture, because this name, again, originated uh in the Bible, meaning a a powerful, mighty hunter, a rebellious one. And in 1904, when Waters Meat decided to use this name, uh it made perfect sense. It was a uh an intimidating nickname by all means. But then fast forward 44 years later, and a cartoon was actually able to reverse the meaning of that that name. So jumping forward to today, when we see that name and we hear of the Nimrod of Waters Meet, we automatically raise our eyebrows on that. And that's occurred down through time, and insomuch it made national headlines in the early 2000s with ESBN. Now, according to the Michigan High School Athletic Association, an article from May of 2012 entitled Still Cheering on the Nimrods, they revisited the 2004 commercials by ESBN. There was a total of three commercials, two of which had the basketball team playing a local rifle, and then another one which featured local Watersmeat resident Del Jenkins at that time, 81 years old, dressed in his hunter's orange. He was cheering on. He was a member of the 1930s Nimrod basketball team. So these three commercials were actually part of ESBN's running series at that time, without sports. And the title on these commercials they would conclude with Without Sports, who would cheer for the Nimrods? And you could honestly look at that twofold. First of all, who would cheer for the lowly Nimrods? Having now acclimated that name with an insult and a lowly individual, someone that's not too smart in today's society. And then you could look at it also on the end of performance, because honestly, down through time, Watersmeath has not been that successful in sports. They don't have football, but they've not been that successful on the court. They've been very limited to say the very least. But that's okay. They still have the nickname, and that's what most of the attention down through the years with the school has revolved around. Not athletic accomplishments, but they hang their hat on that nickname Nimrod. So we're going to get a little more into that. So it was in March of 2004, during the time of these commercials, that the team and the coach, George Patterson, they were scheduled to appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and also the governor of Michigan at that time, Jennifer Granholm. Essentially, this team had received not just statewide recognition, but now at this point, thanks to the ESPN commercials, they were known nationally. That's something that a lot of teams don't ever have that opportunity to be bestowed upon them. But the Watersmeet Nimrods in 2004 was definitely at the peak of their popularity. In just a short time, um, roughly two years, merchandise sales for the schools topped over $500,000. They had orders from all 50 states and also Australia, England, Germany, and they used those profits to fund graduate scholarships. So they put those to good use for their bettering of their students' education. So kudos to Watersmeat for that. Just think about $500, over $500,000. And at that time, who knows what that number may be or if they still participate in these scholarship opportunities. As I said, I was not able to connect with anyone from the school. But I'd love to know that if that's still done today. But during that two-year period, think of the number of kids, the number of lives that were a change because they were able to go to school because of the funds that were raised through the school's nickname. Just a tremendous story in itself with that. At the time of these commercials, when the school was receiving all this attention, the team had a really good basketball team at that time, around 2004 to 05, is when they had a perfect 6-0 conference record. They had a great tournament run, the longest in program history, and they eventually lost to a Class D regional team in by the name of Posen. They lost by one point in that game. So they were district champions but lost in the next round. They've had three district titles, 1984, 1987, and 2006. So that 04 year, it's looked like we're, you know, they're they're gaining national popularity, and then that's when they put together their tremendous run here, just falling short by one point to posing. There's no documented state-level achievements found for girls' basketball or volleyball or any other sports. So they're pretty limited on the historical part of Watersmeet and their success on and off the court or the field. And they've uh they've used that to their benefit down through down through time. It's amazing how that the name flipped from when it first began in 1904, maybe 40-something years later, when the Looney Tunes situation came about, to where now it flipped after that. And to today, when we think of Nimrod, we think of an insult. But to this team, they proudly wear that name. They've accepted it, and they're proud. They are proud to be Nimrods. In fact, a 2012 quote from George Peterson at the time was coach, principal. He's he's been various, from what I can gather, he's been held a number of titles with the school district, superintendent, coach, principal. But he had a quote in 2012 that said, Whatever happens, we're Nimrods and proud of it. That quote came from the Associated Press in a 2012 interview with Coach Peterson. And with that, we conclude the story of the Waters Meet Nimrods from the state of Michigan. And it's going to be up to you. Once this podcast posts, you're going to have a voting option on Facebook, on the website, and on Instagram. Now, with Facebook, I want to let you know that Facebook is trying to limit or remove the poll option from most pages. So the way that'll be done, it'll be done through a uh through a thread there in which you'll comment who you're going to vote for in this first-round matchup in the North region. Are you going to vote for today's participant, the Waters Meet Nimrods from the state of Michigan? Or are you going to go with the Teutopoulos Wooden Shoes, who we aired last week from the state of Illinois? The choice is up to you. Which story, which nickname do you like the best? Ask you that you would please vote. Please share the podcast on the social media forums that we have. And let's get involved and let's see which one of these teams advance. Now, this voting will take place for one week. Next Thursday night at midnight, voting will stop. And on the Friday morning episode next week, we will reveal who advances between Waters Meet and Teutopolis. Thank you all for listening. I hope you've enjoyed this story of the Nimrods, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Thank you.