SORCERY IN THE SOUTH WALT DISNEY WORLD’S EPCOT CENTER IS A POPULAR ORLANDO TOURIST ATTRACTION 8 SORCERY IN THE SOUTH
NICK ANDERSON Like many American cities Orlando Florida was first known under a different name Jernigan after Aaron Jernigan the area’s first settler When he proved to be a terrible military leader in the mid-1850s the town’s leading citizens demanded a name change Why they chose Orlando however is shrouded in mystery The namesake could have been Orlando Reeves a soldier supposedly killed in 1835 during the Second Seminole War but an exhaustive search of military records years later found no one by that name A second theory suggests that it was local cattle rancher Orlando Savage Rees A third more whimsical theory goes back to William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It in which the hero is named Orlando One of the main thoroughfares in the city is Rosalind Avenue purportedly after Rosalind the play’s quick-witted heroine 9
GUARD REGGIE THEUS BROUGHT SUPERSTAR SHOOTING TO THE YOUNG MAGIC ROSTER In terms of what Orlando is today the In 1986 a group led by businessman Jim third explanation seems most fitting Just as Shakespeare wrote to entertain the masses so the city of Orlando aims to please Nicknamed the Theme Park Capital of the World Orlando draws more than 50 million tourists every year to live out their dreams at attractions such as Universal Studios SeaWorld Gatorland and Wet n Wild Water Park But the city’s first and still best-known theme park is Walt Disney World which includes Epcot and the Magic Kingdom Orlando is also home to another kind of Magic its team in the National Basketball Association NBA Hewitt and former Philadelphia 76ers general manager Pat Williams began lobbying the NBA to give Orlando a franchise Partnering with the Orlando Sentinel they held a contest to name the team long before the NBA had made a decision A committee chose Magic over three other finalists Tropics Juice and Heat According to the committee the name refers to the magic of Orlando a tourist hotspot with lots to offer visitors and those who called the area home In 1987 the league granted a franchise to Orlando A year later Williams hired former 10
COURTSIDE STORIES The League Expands During the mid-1980s the NBA decided to expand its then 23-team league by 3 franchises In April 1987 the NBA Board of Governors granted Charlotte North Carolina a franchise to begin play in 1988 and Minneapolis Minnesota another one to start the following season Two Florida cities Orlando and Miami vied for the third Unable to choose just one the NBA accepted both The Miami Heat joined the league in 1988 and the Magic entered the next year As they became a part of the league the new teams rotated through the NBA’s divisions Orlando despite its southern location began as part of the Eastern Conference’s Central Division The team then moved into the Midwest Division and finally settled into the Atlantic Division for the 1991 92 season This rotating system will give the fans in these new franchise cities a chance to see all the NBA stars several times in the first three years said league commissioner David Stern When the teams at last migrated into their permanent geographic divisions he said they could build rivalries with existing teams in the same area 11 The League Expands
