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Logo of major league baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates that was used from 1960 until 1967. Unlike today, the Pirates were one of the top teams in the National League in this era, and won a World Series title in dramatic fashion in the first year this logo was used, in 1960. Despite losing games to the New York Yankees in the series by scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0, the Bucs managed to force the Series to a seventh game, and won 10-9 on a walk-off home run by Bill Mazeroski in the bottom of the 9th inning. The Pirates were loaded with talented players in this era, including Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente, Elroy Face, Dick Groat, Willie Stargell and Bill Virdon.

Logo of a team that played one season, 1934-35,  in the National Hockey League, the St. Louis Eagles. If their logo looks somewhat familiar, it’s because the eagle was copied from a city of St. Louis icon, the Anheuser-Busch Budweiser logo. The Eagles folded after one year, but  for a pretty unusual reason. The team had great attendance in St. Louis, but had been transferred there from Ottawa and had to play in the same division as the old Senators team they were born from – the Canadian Division. The long train rides to cities like  Montreal, Toronto and Boston not only wore out the Eagle players but the travel costs drained the team’s profits. The owners petitioned the league to move back to Ottawa after the ’35 season, but were declined and the franchise was disbanded instead. The Eagles’ captain for their lone season was Hall of Famer Syd Howe, no relation to Gordie.

Logo of the United States Football League’s Los Angeles Express, who made big news in their second year in the league by signing QB Steve Young to a huge contract that included a $1 million per season annuity that he is still collecting on today. The team had made attempts to make a big splash in the L.A. market in 1983 by almost signing Eric Dickerson and Dan Marino, but both players changed their mind and opted to go with the established NFL.  The team never took hold in the Los Angeles market, since at the time there were 2 NFL teams there, the Rams and Raiders, and folded along with the rest of the league after the 1985 season. Ironically, there are currently no professional football teams playing in the L.A. market.

Logo of a charter member team of the old American Basketball Association, the Pittsburgh Pipers. The Pipers won the ABA title in the league’s first year of existence in 1967-68, behind ABA legend and future NBA star Connie Hawkins. True to the transient nature of the teams in the ABA in those early years, the Pipers, despite having decent attendance numbers and a championship team, moved to Minnesota the next year after the original Minnesota franchise, the Muskies, moved to Miami. It turned out to be a bad move, and after only one year in Minnesota the club came back to Pittsburgh, played one more season as the Pipers, then were renamed the Condors. Besides Hawkins, some notable former Piper players were John Brisker, George Thompson, Mike Lewis and James Silas.

This is the logo of one of minor league baseball’s more interestingly-named teams, the Albuquerque Isotopes of the Pacific Coast League. They are a AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The nickname is derived from an episode of The Simpsons where Homer goes on a hunger strike to try to keep the Springfield Isotopes, his local team, from moving to Albuquerque. When the team held a contest allowing fans to vote on the new team’s name, Isotopes got 67% of the votes, and won. The team is regularly one of baseball’s leaders in selling merchandise. Actually, the name has some relevance to its’ home, since New Mexico  has a number of well-known scientific and military facilities dealing with nuclear technology, such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in Carlsbad.

Logo of the Cincinnati Stingers hockey team, which played in the World Hockey Association from 1975 until 1979. The WHA, although most of their established teams were struggling financially, decided to expand in 1974 and the Stingers were one of the teams added. Their roster included several future NHL players, including Mark Messier, Robbie Ftorek, Mike Gartner, Paul Stewart and goaltender Mike Liut.

Logo of the Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League, one of the league’s most stable franchises during it’s 3 year existence. They consistently led or were near the top of the USFL in attendance, and their merchandise outsold that of the NFL’s Buccaneers. One of the Bandits’ minority owners was actor Burt Reynolds, and the team derived it’s nickname from Reynolds’ popular Smokey And The Bandit movies of that time. Steve Spurrier coached the Bandits for all 3 of their seasons, and their roster included Nate Newton and Gary Anderson, both of whom would later play in the NFL, and Larry Pfohl, better known as professional wrestler Lex Luger.

Logo of the National Basketball Association’s Syracuse Nationals, who played in the league from 1949 until 1963, when they moved to Philadelphia and became the 76ers. The franchise is the oldest continued team in league history. The Nats won the NBA title in 1955 behind long-time NBA legend Dolph Schayes. Other notable players to wear the franchise uniform in the small-town Syracuse years were Al Cervi, Alex Groza, Johnny Kerr and Hal Greer.

Logo of baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies that was used by the team from 1970 until 1983. Those years included the team’s World Series championship team of 1980, led by manager Dallas Green, Hall of Fame 3rd baseman Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Greg Luzinski and star pitchers Steve “Lefty” Carlton and the late Tug “Ya Gotta Believe” McGraw.  Other notable Fightin’ Phils from this era were current team general manager Ruben Amaro, catcher and current broadcaster Tim McCarver, pitcher and current U.S. Senator Jim Bunning and flamboyant power-hitting outfielder Dick Allen.

Logo of the New York Raiders hockey team, an entry in the old World Hockey Association. The Raiders were supposed to be a flagship franchise for the WHA in the New York market, but struggled to compete with the NHL’s Rangers and the team’s original owners defaulted midway through the first season and the league took control of the team. Under new ownership in their second season they were renamed the Golden Blades but defaulted again and the league then moved them to New Jersey where they became the Jersey Knights. That didn’t last long either, and this franchise, after the 1974 season, was moved to San Diego and became the Mariners.