Salt Lake City Gulls

The Salt Lake City Gulls, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, played ten seasons of Triple-A baseball from 1975 through 1984 at Derks Field. They took their name from the California gull, Utah's state bird, which earned the honor by reportedly descending on the crickets eating the Mormon pioneers' first crops in 1848.

The Gulls reached the league championship series in each of their first two seasons, 1975 and 1976, and lost both times to the Hawaii Islanders. The rematch came in 1979, when manager Jimy Williams took the club past Hawaii in a three-game sweep for the title. It was the last championship any Salt Lake City club would win at that level for decades.

Salt Lake was a California Angels affiliate through the 1981 season and switched to the Seattle Mariners for 1982. The Gulls took the first-half division title that year and the second-half crown in 1984, but the operation was losing money throughout. After the 1984 season the club was sold and moved to Calgary, Alberta.

The franchise had been in Salt Lake City under a series of names going back decades, playing as the Bees, then the Angels from 1971 to 1974, then the Gulls. Derks Field, which opened in 1928, hosted all of it, and stood until 1993.

Professional baseball never left the city for long. A new club arrived in 1985, and the city has fielded a team under one name or another almost continuously since.