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Logo of a team that once played in the Canadian Football League, the Ottawa Rough Riders. The franchise, one of the oldest sports teams in North America, was founded in 1876 and played until folding after the 1996 season. The logo above was used in the 1960s, when the Riders won 3 of the 9 Grey Cup championships in their history.  Some notable players from this era are CFL legends Russ Jackson, Ron Stewart and Margene Adkins. One of the signs that the franchise was in trouble, just prior to folding, came when the club drafted a player named Derrell Robertson in 1995. He was a decent player – the problem was he had died in a car accident the previous December.

Logo of a football team that played in the old United States Football League in the 1980s, the Michigan Panthers. The Panthers played 2 seasons in the league before it folded, winning its’ inaugural championship in 1983 and losing the title game in ’84 in overtime. The team’s top players included Bobby Hebert, Anthony Carter, Ray Bentley, Ray Pinney and Cleo Miller.

Logo of a football team that plays in the National Football League, the New Orleans Saints. The logo was used from the team’s inception in 1967 until 1984. Although they’ve won a championship in recent years and are currently among the league’s top teams, the Saints were a consistent loser for most of the years this logo was used. The team’s first coach was Hall of Famer Tom Fears, and among the players from the era of this logo are Jim Taylor, Archie Manning, Danny Abramowicz, John Gilliam, Tom Dempsey, Billy Kilmer, Dave Parks, Chuck Muncie, Wes Chandler and Ken Stabler.

Logo of the alma mater of the player featured on the sports card of the day, Troy Aikman – the UCLA Bruins. The Bruins have never been a dominant football program, usually playing second fiddle in their conference to USC, but they’ve been competent, winning a national title in 1954 and numerous bowl games. They also had a Heisman Trophy winner – QB Gary Beban in 1962. The school’s basketball program, on the other hand, was THE dominant force under coach John Wooden in the 1960s and ’70s, featuring such all time players as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor), Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich, Lucius Allen, Walt Hazzard, Henry Bibby, Marques Johnson, Curtis Rowe, Sidney Wicks and Reggie Miller. Bruins’ hoop teams have won an amazing 11 national championships over the years.

This is a classic logo of another college football powerhouse, the University of Miami Hurricanes. Over the years, the school has won 5 national championships and holds a couple of NFL draft distinctions – they had the most first round picks in a single draft, and the most consecutive drafts with at least one first round pick. Players from the school refer to it as “The U”, and the list of former Hurricanes includes Don Bosseler, Jim Kelly, Michael Irvin, Warren Sapp, Bennie Blades, Vinny Testaverde, Bernie Kosar, Russell Maryland and Gino Torretta.

We’ve featured the logos of some of the top college football programs recently, and the list wouldn’t be complete without including the Oklahoma Sooners. The program began in 1895 and has the best winning percentage (.763) of all major college teams since 1945. The team has featured legendary coaches like Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer and current coach Bob Stoops, and 5 Heisman Trophy winners (along with 6 players who were Heisman runnerups). The school has had 152 All American players over the years, including Tommy McDonald, Steve Owens, Billy Sims, Lee Roy Selmon, Brian Bosworth and Sam Bradford.

A logo used in the 1950s of another of the great college football powerhouse schools, the University of Southern California Trojans. USC has an amazing legacy, having won 11 national championships and also holding the distinction of having 472 players drafted into the NFL, more than any other school. The Trojans boast 6 Heisman Trophy winners, plus another awarded to Reggie Bush that was later vacated for NCAA rules violations. The school’s list of great players is just too long to list, but one amazing fact that shows the impact the Trojan football program has had on the pros is that there are 11 former USC players in the Hall of Fame in Canton, including Frank Gifford, O.J. Simpson, Anthony Munoz, Lynn Swann, Ronnie Lott, Marcus Allen, Bruce Matthews and Willie Wood.

Political correctness is rampant in our society today, and has even found its’ way into college sports. These logos are an example of that. The Miami of Ohio Redskins (left), existed until 1997, when the school bowed to political pressure and changed the name to RedHawks and began using the logo on the right. The school has been called the “Cradle of Coaches” because of the number of football coaches who worked there that went on to high profile careers, including Weeb Ewbank, Paul Brown, Sid Gillman, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Sean Payton and John Harbaugh.

Logo of the Florida State Seminoles, a legendary college football program that plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ‘Noles flourished as a national powerhouse under long-time head coach Bobby Bowden, winning 2 national championships and setting a record by gaining a top 5 ranking 14 seasons in a row. Some notable FSU players include Ron Sellers, Fred Biletnikoff, Deion Sanders, Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke, Warrick Dunn, Derrick Brooks and kicker Sebastian Janikowski.

Not exactly a “classic” logo, but a good one to feature on Thanksgiving, is this logo of the New England College Pilgrims, an NCAA Division III school located in Henniker, New Hampshire that is best known for it’s mens’ and womens’ hockey programs, which both play in the Eastern Conference Athletic Conference (ECAC). In most other sports, the school competes in The Commonwealth Coast Conference.