These are 10 of the most controversial, offensive sports team names in history, and the stories of how they came about

Now the Blue Hawks, Dickinson State University's sports teams were known as the Savages until 1974.

Protests from students and locals, during which people held picket signs describing the name as a "massacre to American Indian heritage," forced the eventual change.

It wasn't until 1981 that Pekin High School in Chicago, Illinois realised it was inappropriate to nickname its various sports teams the Chinks, a slur used to describe Chinese people.

The school's skating arena was also formerly known as the "Chink Rink," according to the the Chinese American Museum of Chicago, while its mascot was known as "Mr. Bamboo."

Named after a former student's pet raccoon in 1924 (seriously), it wasn't until 2002 Frisco High School's Fighting Coons changed its name to the Fighting Raccoons.

Locals from the small town in Texas were unhappy with the change, but the school board's president at the time, Dan Presley, said it was the right thing to do because some people were "hurt by it," according to UPI.

Coon is an ethnic slur for black people.

The Arabs, whose former mascot was a deeply offensive stereotype of a bearded Middle Eastern man, changed their name in 2014 after a petition from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

They're known today as the "Mighty Arabs." Much better.

The Wops, a derogatory term for Italian-Americans standing for "without papers," was the adopted nickname of Wahpeton High School's sports teams up until the early 1990s.

They've since been known as the Huskies, however local news outlets were still referring to them by their old name as recently as 2013.

The Aboriginal All-Stars was a 1983 team made up of the best Australian rules football players of indigenous heritage.

However it only competed under this name once, before changing its name to the Indigenous All-Stars.

No official reason was given for the change, but the term "Aborigine" is often considered offensive because of its "racist connotations from Australia's colonial past," according to Amnesty.

It might not sound inherently offensive, but the phrase "brown squaw" is actually Senecan (a native American language) for "vagina," according to Jose Barreiro's book, "America is Indian Country."

In the book, Barreiro quotes a former school athlete as saying that the school was made aware of the name's meaning by a Seneca chief in 1975, and immediately stopped using it.

Sports teams at Orofino High School in Idaho are nicknamed the Maniacs, and the school's mascot is a rather barbaric looking man with frizzy hair wearing nothing but a gown.

Just half a mile away from the school lies a 55-bed psychiatric hospital.

Former students have claimed the name and mascot to simply be expressions of the school's enthusiasm for sports, according to Deseret News.

The team's name has never been changed, and is still in use to this day. Female teams are known as the Lady Maniacs.

The London Rippers' decision to model itself after infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper caused quite the stir in the Canadian province of Ontario in 2007.

London Mayor Joe Fontana said at the time the name was a "serious concern" given its ties to the mythical figure, who is blamed for the murder of five women, whilst a local women's shelter described it as appalling, according to Huff Post.

The Canadian baseball team was never forced to change its name, but was replaced with a side called the "Road Warriors" after folding.