Logo of a minor league baseball team that plays in the Class AA Eastern League, the Richmond Flying Squirrels. The franchise, affiliated with the San Francisco Giants, has existed since 1972, but set up shop in Richmond just this season, returning minor league baseball to the Virginia city after a one year absence when the AAA Richmond Braves, a long-standing Braves affiliate, relocated to Lawrenceville, Georgia and became the Gwinnet Braves.
A logo used by the National Hockey League’s Buffalo Sabres from 1996 until 2006, in an era when the team also changed its’ traditional blue and gold color scheme to black, red and grey. The logo became known to fans as the “Mad Cow Diseased Goat Head” logo, and the team has since gone back to blue and gold colors and their old Buffalo and crossed swords logo. Some players who played for Buffalo during the “Goat Head” era include Dominik Hasek, Matthew Barnaby, Brad May, Rob Ray, Richard Smehlik and one of the toughest captains in team history, Michael Peca.
Logo of a former Arena Football League team, the Buffalo Destroyers, who played in the league from 1999 until 2003. They were owned by businessman Mark Hamister, and for a couple of seasons were coached by former Bills’ linebacker Ray Bentley. Bentley resigned the post to take a broadcasting job for Fox Sports doing NFL games, a job he’s still doing today. The franchise didn’t do well at the box office and was relocated to Columbus, Ohio in 2004. Some of their players were former Bills’ lineman Jerry Crafts, quarterback Browning Nagle and placekicker Bjorn Nittmo.
Logo of the Fayetteville Patriots, a minor league basketball team that played in the NBA Developmental League from 2002 until 2006. They were one of 8 charter franchises in the league but folded in 2006 after posting a 16-32 won/loss record, finishing last. They were coached by Mike Brown, who went on to coach LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and were affiliated with the Charlotte Bobcats, Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks. Some of their notable players include Mateen Cleaves – who led Michigan State to an NCAA title, Chris Anderson – the first NBADL player to be called up to the NBA, Gerald Green – who went on to win the NBA Slam Dunk contest, and Amir Johnson, currently a Toronto Raptor.
Logo of an old minor league baseball franchise that played in the Class AA Eastern League from 1994 until 2003, the New Haven Ravens. They were affiliated with the Colorado Rockies, and won the Eastern League championship in 2000. The team was sold and relocated to Manchester, New Hampshire in 2004, and became the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Some notable former players from the New Haven years are Todd Helton, Alex Rios, Neifi Perez, Brian Fuentes and Craig Counsell.
Logo of the Ottawa Nationals, a hockey team that played in the old World Hockey Association for one season in 1972-73. The franchise bombed at the box office in Ottawa to the point where they finished the year by playing their playoff series in Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. They were referred to as the Ontario Nationals at that point, and prior to the next season were sold to John Bassett, permanently moved to Toronto and renamed the Toros. Some notable players on the roster for the one season in Ottawa were Wayne Carleton, Brian Conacher, Guy Trottier and goaltenders Gilles Gratton and Les Binkley.
Logo of the National Football League’s Washington Redskins, used from 1965 until 1969. The team was coached by NFL legend Otto Graham for most of this era, but Graham’s greatness as a player did not carry over to coaching, as the club was a losing team. In 1969 they hired Vince Lombardi to replace Graham and the former Green Bay coach led the ‘Skins to a 7-5-2 record, but he died of cancer just prior to the 1970 season. Despite being a losing club from the mid-to-late ’60s, Washington had plenty of great players on their roster, including Sonny Jurgensen, Charley Taylor, Sam Huff, Jerry Smith, Paul Krause, Bobby Mitchell and Chris Hanburger.
For their inaugural season in the National Basketball Association in 1970-71, this was the logo of the Buffalo Braves, who entered the league that year as one of three expansion teams, along with the Portland Trailblazers and Cleveland Cavaliers. The team’s first head coach was Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes, and they were able to acquire a couple of useful players – Don May and Bob Kaufmann – in the expansion draft. Like most expansion teams, they had a losing season in that first year, but in the next 2 years made some great moves – hiring Jack Ramsay as coach, trading disappointing draft pick Elmore Smith for Jim McMillian, and drafting Ernie DiGregorio, Bob McAdoo and local college star Randy Smith, and by 1973 were in the NBA playoffs. The club was sold to ABA owner John Y. Brown in 1978, who promptly traded the franchise for the Boston Celtics, and they were relocated to San Diego.
Logo of a minor league baseball team that plays in the Class A Midwest League, the Great Lakes Loons. The club is located in Midland, Michigan and affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Five former Loons have made it to the big leagues, including Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw and Cleveland catcher Carlos Santana. Like most minor league clubs, the Loons have a mascot – an energetic bird named Lou E. Loon, and his signature cheer, the “Funky Feather”, won minor league baseball’s best in-game promotion award in 2009.
Logo of the Minnesota North Stars, who played in the National Hockey League from 1967 until moving to Dallas in 1993. This logo was used from the team’s inception in ’67, when they joined the NHL along with 5 other expansion teams, (doubling the league’s size from 6 teams, known as the “original six”, to twelve), until 1974. The team’s notable players in their early years include goalies Gump Worsley and Cesare Maniago, Bill Goldsworthy, Ted Harris, Danny Grant, Lou Nanne (who later served as the team’s GM), Jude Drouin and Bill Masterton, who unfortunately is the only player in NHL history to die from an on-ice injury. During a game against the California Seals in 1968, he fell backwards while skating, hitting his head on the ice, and never regained consciousness, dying 2 days later of a “massive brain injury”.