This is the logo, used from 1960 until 1971, of the Yale Bulldogs football team. The Yale program is one of the oldest in the country, having started play in 1872. They are members of the Ivy League, and were once a football powerhouse, winning 27 national championships and boasting 2 of the first 3 Heisman Trophy winners – Larry Kelley and Clint Frank. Some Yale alumni who went on to play in the NFL are Calvin Hill, Chuck Mercein, Gary Fencik and Dick Jauron.
Logo of the Delaware Blue Hens’ college football team, used from 1950 until 1992. The Fightin’ Blue Hens were a Division II college powerhouse in the era of this logo, winning 4 national championships. The school has sent a lot of players onto the NFL, including Rich Gannon, Scott Brunner and current Ravens’ QB Joe Flacco.
Logo of a college football program, the Boise State Broncos, used from 1974 until 2001. The program wasn’t the well known powerhouse that it is today back then, but was a top team in the Big Sky Conference. The school started out as a two-year junior college, but grew into a four year school and joined the NCAA in 1968. The school has produced one NFL Hall of Famer – linebacker Dave Wilcox, and has many top stars playing in the league today, including Doug Martin, Ryan Clady, Austin Pettis, Chris Carr and Titus Young.
Logo of a major college football program – the UCLA Bruins – used from 1960 until 1971, an era that included the successful reign of coach Tommy Prothro. Also during this era, Gary Beban won the Heisman Trophy, in 1967. Although the Bruins have historically been a second fiddle to the cross-town rival USC Trojans, they have sent many players on to the NFL, including Tom Fears, Troy Aikman, Randy Cross, Dave Dalby, Mel Farr, Freeman McNeil, Kenny Easley, Jerry Robinson and current players Maurice Jones-Drew and Marcedes Lewis.
We recently featured the logos of the Army and Naval Academies, so it made sense to also feature the logo of the Air Force Academy. This logo was used by the Falcons from 1955 until 1972. The team currently plays in the Mountain West Conference, and has won the “Commander In Chief’s” Trophy, signifying the top service academy program, the last 2 seasons. Air Force has sent numerous players on to the NFL, the most notable being defensive linemen Bryce Fisher and Chad Hennings.
Logo of the Washington Ambassadors football team that was slated to join the newly-formed World Football League in 1974, but never got off the ground. The prospective owners couldn’t work out arrangements to share RFK Stadium with the Washington Redskins (not surprising since the new league was formed to compete with the NFL). The team then looked at possible sites in Baltimore and Norfolk, Virginia but found nothing there either. By the time the league started play for its’ inaugural ’74 season, the Ambassadors were sold and relocated to Orlando, Florida and renamed the Florida Blazers.
Logo of the Nashville Kats football team, who played in the Arena League in 2 different versions. Named after the Lovin’ Spoonful song “Nashville Cats”, the original franchise played in the AFL starting in 1997 until moving to Atlanta in 2002. They were coached their first 2 seasons by former NFL player Ed Khayat, and played in 2 Arena Bowl title games, although they lost both. The franchise was reborn in Nashville in 2005, and played 3 more seasons before disbanding.
This is a logo, used from 1995 until 2004, of a Canadian Football League team, the Toronto Argonauts. The Argos, on Sunday, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the CFL’s championship game – the Grey Cup – by winning the title in their home city. The team has won 16 Grey Cups in all, including 3 during the era this logo was used, in 1996, ’97 and 2004. The two-time champion teams of the ’90s included Doug Flutie and Mike Vanderjagt, while the ’97 team was the only team in football history to feature 2 former Heisman Trophy winners at quarterback – Flutie and Andre Ware.
This is a memorial logo used as a patch on the uniforms of the Dallas Cowboys to honor their former coach, the legendary Tom Landry, following his death in 2000. It featured his trademark fedora hat, and was a fitting tribute to the man who built the team from an expansion franchise in 1960 into “America’s Team”, one of the most successful sports franchises of all time.
This logo looks very familiar to Buffalo football fans, but it’s actually the logo of a college football program, the Howard University Bison. The school plays in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, and won small school national championships in 1920, 1925 and 1926. The small historically black college, located in Washington, DC, has actually been open to both genders and all races since its’ founding shortly after the Civil War ended. The school has sent 20+ players on to the NFL, including Marques Douglas and Antoine Bethea.