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”.
Logo of the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals, used from 1995 until 2001. The Caps, founded as an expansion team in 1974, changed both their logo and team colors in ’95, and had a decent team in this era, under coach Jim Shoenfeld, and later Ron Wilson. Their roster included players like Peter Bondra, Dale Hunter, Joe Juneau, Steve Konowalchuck, Phil Housley, Calle Johansson, Adam Oates, Sergei Gonchar and goalie Olaf Kolzig. They reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998, but were swept by Detroit. Also in the ’98 season, Hunter, Housley and Oates all reached the 1,000 point mark in their careers, the only time in NHL history 3 players on the same team accomplished that feat.
Logo of the Orlando Renegades, a team that played in the United States Football League. The team played its’ first 2 years in Washington before relocating to Florida in 1985. In Orlando, the Renegades played their home games in the Citrus Bowl, and their head coach was Lee Corso, currently a colorful college football analyst for ESPN known for wearing teams’ mascot heads when he predicts which team will win a game. His staff included 2 coaches who would go on to have success in the NFL – Steve Mariucci and Bruce DeHaven. Corso built a pretty good offensive team led by mobile QB Reggie Collier and RB Curtis Bledsoe, but the franchise folded after the ’85 season along with the rest of the league.
Logo of the National Basketball Association’s Detroit Pistons, used from their first season in Detroit in 1957 until 1971. They moved to the Motor City from Fort Wayne, Indiana in ’57, and were mostly a losing operation during the era when this logo was used, although they had some of the sport’s greatest players on their roster, including Dave Bing, current mayor of Detroit, Bob Lanier, Dave DeBusschere, Jimmy Walker and Walt Bellamy. The franchise has won 3 NBA titles, two in the “Bad Boy” era in 1989 and ’90, and most recently in 2004.
When major league baseball’s Houston Colt .45s moved into the first domed stadium ever built, the Astrodome, in 1965, owner Judge Roy Hofheinz renamed the team the Astros, and this was their inaugural logo, used from ’65 until 1974. The club had entered the National League as an expansion team in 1962, and, typical of expansion clubs, did a lot of losing. The new stadium and name breathed some life into the team, and attendance soared, although mostly because of curiosity for the new building. Shortly after play started in the dome, groundskeepers realized that grass wouldn’t grow indoors, and that resulted in the first artificial turf, AstroTurf, being installed. The team was full of young talent including Joe Morgan, Sonny Jackson, Jesus Alou and Jim Wynn, known as “The Toy Cannon” for his diminutive stature and impressive home run power. Also, the club had outstanding young pitching prospects, including Larry Dierker, Don Wilson – who had 2 career no-hitters – J.R. Richard and Mike Cuellar. Veterans Rusty Staub and Eddie Mathews were also Astros in the early years, and Mathews hit his 500th career home run while playing there.
Logo of the Chicago Cougars of the World Hockey Association, one of the league’s original franchises. They existed from 1972 until 1975, and in their second season advanced to the WHA playoffs final round, but lost the battle for the Avco Cup to Gordie Howe’s Houston Aeros. In an earlier playoff round that same year, the Cougars were forced to play 2 home games at a skating rink in a local shopping center, due to their home arena being booked for a production of Peter Pan, starring gymnast Cathy Rigby. When the team’s owners encountered financial difficulties prior to the Cougars’ third and final season, the club was sold to Cougar players Ralph Backstrom, Dave Dryden and player-coach Pat Stapleton, but they wound up folding after the ’75 season.
In 1993 the Canadian Football League decided to add 2 teams from U.S. cities, San Antonio and Sacramento, but the San Antonio team, the Texans, folded before ever playing a game. This is their logo. In 1995, the Sacramento team moved to San Antonio and the Texans were reborn, but played only the one year in the Alamodome before folding. In their lone season in San Antonio, the team reached the CFL “South” Divison final, losing to eventual the Grey Cup winning Baltimore Stallions. The team’s coach was former Buffalo Bills’ quarterback and coach Kay Stephenson, and they had the league’s second highest scoring offense. Their backup QBs were Joe Ferguson, former Bills’ signal caller, and Jimmy Kemp, son of another Bills’ QB of the past, Jack Kemp.
