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Logo of the Montreal Royals baseball team, a minor league franchise that played in the AAA International League from 1946 until 1960, when the team moved to Syracuse, NY and became the Chiefs. The Royals were known for their long-time affiliation with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and were the first professional team that Jackie Robinson played on after signing with the Dodgers. The winningest pitcher in Royals’ history is Tommy Lasorda, legendary Dodger manager. Other famous managers who either played for or managed the Royals include Gene Mauch, Walter Alston and Sparky Anderson. Players who honed their skills with the franchise include Robinson, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Roberto Clemente, Don Drysdale and former actor Chuck Connors.

Logo of the Philadelphia Blazers hockey team, who played in the old World Hockey Association for one season, in 1972-73. They started out as the Miami Screaming Eagles but never played a game there, as a suitable arena in Miami wasn’t available. Their lone season in Philly was a disaster, starting with the cancellation of their opening home game, when the Zamboni malfunctioned and tore a chunk out of the playing surface. The Blazers’ ownership made a big splash by signing NHL players like Bernie Parent, Derek Sanderson and player/coach John McKenzie, but all of them wound up with injuries and the club had little success. They relocated to Vancouver for the 1973-74 season.

The logo of a football team that entered the NFL in 1961, the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings, along with the Buffalo Bills, have the distinction of having lost 4 Super Bowl games, and never having won a single title. They were upset in Super Bowl IV by the Chiefs, when CFL veteran Joe Kapp was their quarterback, then lost 3 more times in the 1970s with Fran Tarkenton at the helm. Bud Grant was the coach for all 4 losses. Despite their Super Bowl failures, the Vikings were one of the strongest NFL teams throughout the late 1960s and into the ’70s. To add to their hard luck, in 1998, the Vikes won 15 of 16 regular season games and advanced to the NFC Championship game, where they were upset by Atlanta. Their kicker, Gary Anderson, who had been a perfect 35 for 35 on field goal attempts during the season, missed for the first time all year from 38 yards out with a chance to win the game, and they wound up losing in overtime.

This is the iconic logo of one of pro football’s winningest franchises, “America’s Team”, the Dallas Cowboys. The logo came into use starting in 1964, which is just about when the franchise began winning with regularity. The Cowboys have played in eight Super Bowls, and won 5 of them. The franchise had a record 20 consecutive winning seasons under coach Tom Landry, winning 2 titles during those years. When Jerry Jones bought the club in 1989 he unceremoniously dumped the legendary Landry, the only coach the franchise had known in its’ history, and replaced him with flamboyant college coach Jimmy Johnson. Jones took a lot of flak for the move, but it turned out to be the right one as the ‘Boys won 2 Super Bowls under Johnson, then another under Barry Switzer.

Logo of the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers, used from 1968 until 1995. The franchise has won 5 Super Bowl titles in its’ history, 3 under the late Bill Walsh and 2 more under George Siefert. The Niners were born as a franchise in the old All-America Conference in 1946, and entered the NFL in 1950. Their 5 Super Bowl titles rank them tied for second among NFL teams, but they have the distinction of being the only team with multiple Super Bowl wins that has never lost in the game.

This is the iconic logo of the football team that has won more Super Bowls, six, than any other NFL franchise – the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were founded as the Pittsburgh Pirates by Art Rooney in 1933, and legend has it that he financed the team with his winnings from the local dog track. The team didn’t have much success over the years, but their fortunes changed when they hired Chuck Noll as coach. He proceeded to coach them to 4 titles in the 1970s. The Steeler franchise is a model of consistency, with the Rooney family maintaining ownership to this day.

It’s not a team logo, but the “official” logo of the first Super Bowl, before the game was even known by its’ current name. The game was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game for the first 2 years, and was renamed the “Super Bowl” before the Jets and Colts played in the third game. After Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi succumbed to cancer in 1970, the league named the trophy awarded to the winner of the game after him, to honor his legacy. Also, this first “Super Bowl” was televised by both NBC, which carried the AFL games, and CBS, which televised the NFL.

Logo of the Shreveport Steamer football team, a short-lived franchise in the old World Football League. They were born as the Houston Texans in 1974, but toward the end of their first season moved to Shreveport, and played there until folding partway through the ’75 season. Famed broadcaster Larry King was an analyst on the radio coverage of their games. The team’s roster was dotted with former American Football League players, including Jim Nance, Al Dotson and Hall of Famer Don Maynard, and they also had the distinction of having an ambidextrous quarterback, D.C. Nobles, on the club.

Logo of professional basketball’s Minnesota Timberwolves, used from their inaugural season in the National Basketball Association in 1989 until 1996. They joined the league as an expansion team along with Miami, Orlando and the Charlotte (now New Orleans) Hornets, and the birth of the franchise meant that the NBA was returning to the Twin Cities for the first time since the Lakers were based there. In their early years, some of their notable players included Sam Mitchell, Isiah Rider, Doug West, Christian Laettner, Tony Campbell and Pooh Richardson.

Logo of a baseball team that played in the old Negro American League, the Kansas City Monarchs. The Monarchs were the longest running franchise of all the teams in the Negro Leagues, and one of the most memorable, and sent more players -9 – on to the major leagues than any other Negro League team. Their list of distinguished alumni includes Buck O’Neil, Willard Brown, Hilton Smith, Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Ernie Banks and Elston Howard. The Monarchs also were the first team in professional baseball history to use portable lighting to play night games, in 1930, five years before any major league teams did.