Logo of a storied college football program that plays in the Big Ten Conference, the Michigan State Spartans. This logo was used from 1977 until 1982. Over the years, the Spartans have won or shared a total of 6 national championships. They have also sent numerous players on to the NFL, including Hall of Famers Herb Adderley and Joe DeLamielleure. Others include Gene Washington, John Hannah, George Webster, Bubba Smith, Billy Joe Dupree, Earl Morrall and Andre Rison.
An “alternate” logo, used from 1963 until 1992, of one of the oldest franchises in the National Football League, the Chicago Bears. Some have said the Bear resembles former Bear Hall of Fame tight end and coach Mike Ditka. The team was founded and owned by George “Papa Bear” Halas, who also was a one of the NFL’s founding fathers, a group of men who started the league in a showroom of a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio. The club was originally located in Decatur, Illinois and was known as the Decatur Staleys, but Halas, in 1922, moved them to Chicago and renamed them the Bears, as a tribute to baseball’s Chicago Cubs, who permitted the Bears to play their home games at Wrigley Field.
Logo of a small college football powerhouse, the Grambling State Tigers. Coached for 57 years by the legendary Eddie Robinson, the winningest coach in college football history, the Tigers became known as a school that regularly sent players on to the professional level. When Robinson retired in 1997, his successor was one of those players, former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Doug Williams. The list of Grambling players who played in the NFL includes four Hall of Famers – Buck Buchanan, Willie Brown, Willie Davis and Charlie Joiner.
Logo of the Washington State University Cougars, used from 1956 until 1963. They are a member of the Pacific 12 conference, and are currently coached by Mike Leach. The Cougars have sent many players on to the NFL, including Drew Bledsoe, Keith Lincoln, Mark Rypien, Marcus Trufant and kickers Joe Danelo, Jason Hansen and Rian Lindell.
Whoever came up with the design for the new logo of the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins, pictured above, must have thought the name of the team was the Miami Minnows. It’s another example of an attempt to “modernize” a logo of a team that has a rich history and tradition, and frankly, I have a hard time classifying it as a “classic” logo. Although I’m not necessarily a fan of these teams, I respect franchises that hold to their traditional logos and uniform styles, like the New York Yankees, Oakland Raiders and Montreal Canadiens. I suppose the timing of the logo change for the Dolphins is right, since in recent years they’ve hardly played up to their past history.
Logo of a minor league hockey team that played in the American Hockey League, the Philadelphia Phantoms. The club was founded in 1996 as a minor league AHL affiliate of the NHL Flyers, and played in Philly until 2009, when their home rink, the old Spectrum, was torn down. The team was relocated to Glen Falls, NY where they currently reside as the Adirondack Phantoms. Former Phantom players who went on to play in the NHL include Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Patrick Sharp, Dennis Seidenberg, Joni Pitkanen and R.J. Umberger.
Logo of the Clemson Tigers college football team, used from 1968 until 1975. Traditionally known as the “Clemson University Fighting Tigers”, the team plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and has produced 68 All Americans, 5 undefeated seasons and 169 NFL players, including William “The Refrigerator” Perry, Michael Dean Perry, Joe Bostic, Jerry Butler, Bennie Cunningham and current players CJ Spiller, Charlie Whitehurst, Da’Quan Bowers, Leroy Hill and Chris Hairston.
This isn’t a team logo, but rather the 2011 version of the logo commemorating “Jackie Robinson Day”, that day being April 15th, a day which major league baseball uses annually to honor the man who bravely broke baseball’s color line when he played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers on the date in 1947. Commissioner Bud Selig first designated April 15th as “Jackie Robinson Day” in 2004, and it has become a yearly tradition. Robinson’s jersey number 42 was permanently retired from all of baseball by Selig, but each year on April 15th, every major league player wears the number to honor Robinson.
Logo of the Syracuse Crunch, a minor league hockey team, used from 2000 until 2010. The Crunch play in the East Division of the American Hockey League, and are currently affiliated with the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have always had a reputation as a “rough and tumble” style of hockey team, and in February of 2010, they played in the first outdoor game in AHL history, against the Binghamton Senators, at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse.
Logo of a college football program that plays in the Mountain West Conference, the University of Wyoming Cowboys. This logo was first used in 1965 and is still the team’s official logo today. The program has had many coaches who’ve gone on to great careers, like Bob Devaney, Fritz Shurmur, Fred Akers, Pat Dye and Dennis Erickson. The list of Cowboys’ alumni who have gone on to play in the NFL includes Jerry Hill, Jim Kiick, Conrad Dobler and Jay Novacek.