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.
Logo of the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team, used from their first season in 1996 until 2003. The Coyotes were born in the old World Hockey Association as the Winnipeg Jets, and transferred to Phoenix in ’96 despite great fan support in the Canadian city. A combination of the weak Canadian dollar and the smallest arena in the NHL doomed the franchise there. Some star players from the early Phoenix years include Jeremy Roenick, Mike Gartner, Keith Tkachuk and Rick Tocchet.
Logo of a team from the old World Football League, the Chicago Fire, who existed for only season in the league, 1974. The Fire played their home games at Soldier Field, and were coached by Jim Spavital. The franchise became the first WFL team to sign a player when they inked receiver Jim Seymour to a contract, and then signed the first “name” player when they brought in former NFL quarterback Virgil Carter. One other notable player on the Fire roster was running back Leroy Kelly, a Hall of Famer who starred in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns.
Logo of the Chicago Zephyrs, a franchise in the National Basketball Association that began play in the 1961-62 season as the Packers, then changed their name to the Zephyrs for the ’62-’63 season. The club then moved to Baltimore and was renamed the Bullets in 1963. Some of their key players during their one year stint as the Zephyrs include Terry Dischinger, Walt Bellamy, Bob Leonard, Bill McGill, Don Nelson and Sihugo Green.
This is an “alternate” logo of baseball’s New York Mets, used officially from 1963 until 1970, known as Mr. Met. The logo was popular with young fans, and eventually became a team mascot. He is a familiar site around the stadium at Met games today. He was the first “live” human mascot seen at games, and has the distinction of having been the team’s first “bobblehead” doll.In 2007, Mr. Met was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame. Really? There’s a Mascot Hall of Fame?