Logo of a former minor league baseball team that played, of all places, in Havana, Cuba – the Havana Sugar Kings. They played in the AAA International League from 1954 until 1960, when Fidel Castro and his Communist government took over the country, forcing the franchise to move to Jersey City. The Sugar Kings’ roster included several Cuban players who would go on to play in the major leagues, including Elio Chacon, Luis Arroyo, Tony Gonzalez, Cookie Rojas, Leo Cardenas and Mike Cuellar.
Logo of the long forgotten Boston Yanks, a football team that played in the National Football League from 1944 until 1948. The team played its’ home games at Fenway Park, and for one season – 1945 – merged with the Brooklyn Tigers, due to a shortage of players during World War II, and were known only as the “Yanks”, playing home dates in both Boston and New York. The team moved to New York permanently in 1949 and became known as the Bulldogs. The team had one Hall of Famer on its’ roster – quarterback Ace Parker.
Logo of the Cleveland Browns, a pro football team, used from 1948 until 1958. The team played in the old All America Football Conference from 1946 until 1950, then joined the NFL. The “Brownie” logo is appropriately wearing a championship crown – appropriate since the Browns, under coach Paul Brown, won every AAFC title in the league’s four year existence, then won 3 NFL championships in their first 5 years in that league. Notable Browns’ players from the era of this logo are Otto Graham, Dante Lavelli, Marion Motley, Mac Speedie, Lou Groza, Bill Willis and Jim Brown.
Brand new logo of the National Football League’s Jacksonville Jaguars, which was incorporated into the team’s new multi-colored helmets this season. The Jags joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1995 and made the playoffs in only their second season in ’96. Their first coach was current New York Giant head man Tom Coughlin.
Not a team logo, but the official logo of the old American Football League, which existed for 10 seasons between 1960 and 1969, before merging with the established National Football League. The newly merged league began play in 1970 with the original NFL teams (minus Pittsburgh, Cleveland and the Baltimore Colts) making up the National Conference, and the AFL clubs, plus the 3 NFL teams that agreed to the move, forming the American Conference. The merger helped grow the league into the monster it is today – the most popular spectator sport in the country.
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.