rayonsports.com

This is the logo of the Denver Nuggets basketball franchise that played one season, in 1949-50, in the National Basketball Association. The franchise, the first major sports team to play in the state of Colorado,  was not associated in any way with the current NBA Nuggets. Like many pro sports teams in that era, they began as an amateur team, playing in AAU tournaments, and they were one of the most powerful amateur hoop teams in the country. They went pro in 1948, joining the National Basketball League, then became an NBA franchise in ’49 when the NBL merged with the Basketball Association of America to form the new NBA. The team was disbanded after its’ only season, in which it finished with an 11-51 record. Former U.S. Congressman Morris Udall was a member of the team in its’ 1948 season. Their best player was player/coach Jimmy Darden, a shooting guard out of the University of Denver.

Logo of minor league baseball’s Syracuse Chiefs, used from 1961 until 1979. The Chiefs have been a mainstay in the Triple-A International League since 1934, when the Jersey City Skeeters moved to the Central New York city. They have been affiliated with 11 different major league teams over the years, the longest being the 31 years they were tied to the Toronto Blue Jays. They also had a 10 year affiliation with the New York Yankees during the era when this logo was used. Some of the Chiefs’ notable alumni include Bobby Cox, Ron Guidry, Carlos Delgado, Roy Halladay, Thurman Munson, Fred McGriff, Vernon Wells and Deion Sanders.

This is the logo of the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders, who entered the NHL as an expansion franchise in 1972. This logo is the one that the fans of the franchise favor, and that came to light when the team tried to introduce the infamous “Gorton’s Fisherman” logo in the 1990s. That logo was featured in an earlier “Classic Team Logo” post on this blog.  After much fan backlash the team scrapped that logo and returned to this classic one, which represented the team in its’ glory years in the early 1980s when they won 4 consecutive Stanley Cup titles. Some of the NHL’s great players played on those teams, including Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin, Clark Gillies and goaltender Billy Smith.

The Buffalo Bills completed their annual Toronto “home” game on Sunday, so it seems like a good time to showcase the logo of the city’s real football team, the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts. This particular logo was used from 1956 until 1975. The Argos were founded in 1873 and are one of the oldest sports franchises in North America. They have won a record 15 Grey Cups, the trophy signifying the CFL championship. In the early 1990s, the team was owned by Los Angeles Kings’ owner Bruce McNall, hockey great Wayne Gretzky and comedian John Candy.

Logo of the New Orleans Buccaneers basketball team, which played in the old American Basketball Association from the league’s inception in1967 until 1969. They were moved to Memphis for the 1970 season. Among the players for the Bucs in their 3 year existence were Steve Jones, Red Robbins, Gerald Govan, and 2 men who would go on to successful coaching careers, Doug Moe and Larry Brown. In 2008, the NBA New Orleans Hornets honored the old ABA team by wearing “throwback” Buccaneers jerseys in a couple of games.

This is an “alternate” logo of the new World Series champion San Francisco Giants, used from 2000 until now, that features the team’s crossed “SF” script that has been their cap logo since moving to the West Coast in 1958. The Giants, dating back to their days playing in the Polo Grounds in New York, have been an iconic National League franchise. The Giants have been in the World Series twice since this logo was introduced in 2000, losing a heartbreaking seven game series to the Angels in 2002, the Barry Bonds era, and of course, winning this year’s Series over Texas.

Before winning the Stanley Cup in 1994, the last time the New York Rangers had been champions was in 1940. This logo is from even before that, having originated in 1935. The 1935-36 season was the Rangers’ 10th year in the National Hockey League, and the first time the team failed to qualify for the playoffs, finishing 4th in the league’s American Division. Their coach and general manager at the time was NHL legend Lester Patrick.

Logo of the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League, used from 1954, their first year in the CFL, until 1977. The team is widely known as the “BC Lions” and is based in Vancouver, B.C. The team is named after twin mountain peaks located in Vancouver that are known as ‘the lions” because they resemble a pair of lions. The franchise has won the league’s championship, the Grey Cup, five times in their history, most recently in 2006.

Logo of basketball’s Cleveland Cavaliers, used from their inaugural season in the National Basketball Association in 1970 until 1983. The Cavaliers had the worst record in the NBA in their first season, but had success relatively early, reaching the playoffs in 1975 under coach Bill Fitch and defeating the  perennial powerhouse Washington Bullets in a playoff series. Notable players from the Cavs’ early years include Jim Chones, Bingo Smith, Austin Carr, Nate Thurmond, Jim Cleamons and Dick Snyder.  The club survived an era in the 1980s when they were owned by a clown, Ted Stepien, who made dubious trades and almost drove the franchise into the ground. Now they have to regroup from losing star LeBron James, but early this season karma stepped in, as James’ new superteam, the Miami Heat, was throttled and held to 80 points in their opening game against Boston. A night later, the supposedly undermanned Cavs opened their season by defeating the Celtics.

An “alternate” logo of major league baseball’s Florida Marlins, used from their inaugural season as a National League expansion team in 1993 until 2004. The Marlins have been one of the most successful expansion franchises in professional sports, having won 2 World Series in their short history, in 1997 and again in 2003. Their amateur scouting has been second to none over the years, with the organization finding such bright stars as Livan Hernandez, Edgar Renteria, Josh Beckett, Preston Wilson, A.J. Burnett, Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Lowell, Dontrell Willis and more recently Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez. Unfortunately they also have a reputation for letting a lot of these players walk away in free agency. The team has a new stadium under construction on the site of the old Orange Bowl that is due to open for the 2012 season,  and when they move into their new digs they’ll be known as the “Miami Marlins”.