Logo of a small college (NAIA) football team that plays in the Frontier Conference, the College of Idaho ‘Yotes. The team mascot is a coyote, but the team has always been affectionately known to its’ fans as the ‘Yotes. As small as the school and as unknown as their program is, COI has had a former player make it to the NFL – former San Francisco 49er R.C. Owens. Owens’ roommate while at the school was former Los Angeles Lakers’ NBA legend Elgin Baylor.
Logo of a college football team, used from 1980 until 1993, the Jackson State Tigers. They play in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and have won 16 SWAC championships and 3 Black College National titles over the years. The school recently hired Deion Sanders as their head coach. The list of former JSU alumni who have played pro football is long and impressive. It includes 4 Hall of Famers – Walter Payton, Lem Barney, Jackie Slater and Robert Brazile, and also such notable players as Harold Jackson, Coy Bacon, Jimmy Smith, Jerome Barkum, Wilbert Montgomery, Leon Gray, Verlon Biggs, Rich Caster, Willie Richardson and Speedy Duncan.
Logo of a pro football team with a long history in the National Football League, from their very early years, the Cleveland Rams. The logo is similar to the one the team uses today. The team was located in Cleveland from 1937 until 1945, when they relocated to Los Angeles. The nomadic franchise moved twice since then, to St. Louis and then back to the City of Angels. The club actually was founded in the old AFL in 1936 but moved to the more established NFL in ’37. The Rams won the NFL championship in 1945 and then promptly moved to L.A. the next season. Some notable players from the Cleveland era of the franchise include Fred Gehrke, Ray Hamilton, Riley Matheson, Red Hickey, Jim Benton and Hall of Famer Bob Waterfield.
Logo of the National Football League’s Houston Texans from their inaugural season of 2002. They entered the NFL as an expansion team, returning pro football to the city that had lost the Oilers to relocation in 1997. Coached by Dom Capers, they pulled off a shocking surprise in their first regular season game by upsetting their state cousins, the Dallas Cowboys, in a Sunday Night Football contest. They came back down to earth after that, however, finishing their first year with a 4-12 won/loss record.
Logo of a defunct independent small college football team, the St. Mary’s College Gaels, who began play in 1892 and disbanded in 2003 for budgetary reasons. The school actually dropped its’ program in 1950 but revived it as a club sport, then returned to a regular varsity team, in 1970. The most famous Gael alumnus who played pro football is Hall of Famer John Henry Johnson, while other notable former Gaels include Eddie Erdelatz, who coached at Navy and was the first head coach of the AFL’s Oakland Raiders, Dante Magnani, Harry Ebding, Will Sherman and Joe Aguirre.
This is a logo, used from 1962 until 1973, of a defunct college football team that once played in the Big West Conference, the University of Pacific Tigers. Their program began play in 1895 but disbanded due to financial problems in 1995. They won 6 conference championships over the years. Tiger alumni who enjoyed careers in pro football include Eddie LeBaron, Dick Bass, Bruce Coslet, Tom Flores, John Thomas, Duane Putnam, John Nisby, Mike Merriweather, Lionel Manuel, Willard Harrell, Carl Kammerer, Wayne Hawkins, Gene Cronin, and Bob Lee, who also served as the school’s athletic director.
Logo of a charter member of the American Professional Football Association, the Akron Pros. They were not only a founding member of the league that would eventually become the NFL, they were also the league’s inaugural world champions, having secured the title in 1920. The team originated as the semi-pro Akron Indians in 1908 and changed their name when they joined the APFA. Fritz Pollard, pro football’s first black coach, led the Pros as a player/coach in 1921 and Paul Robeson, another African American, played for the team that year as well, before the NFL segregated the game between 1934 and 1946. The Pros disbanded as a franchise in 1927 due to financial troubles.
Logo of a college football team that plays in the Mountain West Conference, the Colorado State Rams. Their football program has existed since 1893 and they’ve won 15 conference titles over the years. Ram alumni who have gone on to play pro football include Hall of Famer Jack Christiansen, and also Al Baker, Mike Bell, Brady Smith, Tom Rouen, Oscar Reed, Joey Porter, Lawrence McCutcheon, Clark Haggans, Gary Glick, Dale Dodrill, Jim David, Kevin Call and current players Shaq Barrett and Michael Gallup.
Brand new logo of the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, who enter the 2020 season in their new stadium, donning new uniforms and of course, this new logo. It’s a tip of the cap to the team’s history of wearing powder blue. The franchise actually began it’s existence in L.A. and played their for a season in the old American Football League before moving to San Diego. Ownership, unable to get a new stadium deal, moved the team back to the City of Angels, where they will now share the new stadium with the Rams.
There have been many fan suggestions for renaming the Washington NFL franchise, and one of the most popular is the Washington Red Tails, who were an African American fighter pilot group in World War II that got little to no recognition after the war. This is a rendition of a logo that could be used should the team adopt that name. The original Red Tails were Tuskegee Airmen who comprised the 332nd Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps whose mission was primarily as bomber escorts. Their exploits were featured in the movie Red Tails, starring Cuba Cooding Jr. and Terrence Howard.