50 Fun Facts About Sports Logos

The silhouette of a player on the NBA logo is based on a photograph of which Los Angeles Lakers star?

Jerry West picked up the nickname 'the Logo' because of it. Designer Alan Siegel created the mark in 1969.

Which sportswear company paid design student Carolyn Davidson just $35 for its logo in 1971?

Nike later thanked Carolyn Davidson with a diamond Swoosh ring and 500 shares of stock. Co-founder Phil Knight had told her he did not love the design but that it would grow on him.

The Jumpman logo captures Michael Jordan mid-leap in a pose identical to a technique from which art form?

Ballet's grand jeté, a split-legged leap, is the move he struck for a 1984 Life magazine photo shoot. He was wearing New Balance shoes in that first picture.

Which team wears orange helmets with no logo on them, unlike every other club in the NFL?

Cleveland Browns helmets carried players' numbers from 1957 to 1960, but never a team emblem. A 'CB' logo was drawn up in 1965 and went unused.

Which NFL team puts its logo on only the right side of the helmet, a quirk that began as a test?

Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney wanted to see how the emblem looked on the team's gold helmets, so it went on one side first. The look proved popular and was never changed.

The letters 'M' and 'B' in the Milwaukee Brewers' classic logo combine to form which object?

A baseball glove is the shape the club's initials make, with a ball in its pocket. The design came from Tom Meindel, an art history student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Which word does the smaller letter inside the Montreal Canadiens' 'C' logo stand for, despite a popular myth?

Hockey is the word, taken from the 1917 name Club de Hockey Canadien. The 'Habitants' story is traced to promoter Tex Rickard, who apparently told a reporter that was the meaning.

Which company founded the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, whose first logo was a duck-billed goalie mask?

Disney named the 1993 expansion team after its own film The Mighty Ducks, released a year earlier. The mask in the logo was a vintage design inspired by goaltender Jacques Plante.

Fans nicknamed the New England Patriots' 1993 minuteman logo the 'Flying' what, after a rock and roll star?

Elvis Presley's young profile is what many fans saw in the streamlined face. It replaced 'Pat Patriot', a minuteman drawn by Boston Globe artist Phil Bissell.

Atlanta Hawks fans nicknamed the hawk-head logo the team adopted in 1972 after which arcade game character?

Pac-Man is the popular name for the hawk-head silhouette the club used from 1972 to 1995. A modernized version returned in 2014 and soon became the primary logo again.

The five interlocking Olympic rings were designed in 1913 by which leader of the Olympic movement?

Pierre de Coubertin said the five rings stood for the five parts of the world won over to the Olympic cause. Their colors, with the white background, covered every competing nation's flag of the day.

The Lacoste crocodile logo traces to a bet René Lacoste is said to have made with his team captain over what?

A suitcase made of alligator skin, seen in a Boston shop, was the stake in the story. The American press took to calling him 'the Alligator', and a friend later embroidered a crocodile on his blazer.

Ferrari's prancing horse badge was first the personal emblem of Francesco Baracca, a celebrated Italian what?

Fighter pilot Francesco Baracca put the horse on his plane in 1917, and his family later let Enzo Ferrari use it. Baracca painted it black so that it would stand out on the fuselage.

Which NBA team has used the same animal-face logo with very little change since its founding?

Chicago Bulls players have worn graphic designer Dean P. Wessel's emblem since the team's first season in 1966.

Which weapon appeared three times over on the first crest of London's Arsenal Football Club in 1888?

A cannon recalls the munitions workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich who founded the club in 1886. The modern crest shows a single one, and the club's nickname is the Gunners.

The crest of Italian club AS Roma shows a she-wolf with which two infant brothers of legend?

Romulus and Remus were saved and looked after by the she-wolf in Rome's founding myth. In the best-known telling, Romulus later killed his brother and gave the new city his name.

Which plant emblem have New Zealand's All Blacks worn on their black rugby jerseys since the 19th century?

Silver fern badges were first worn by the New Zealand Native team that toured Britain in 1888–89. Many of the country's other national sides now carry 'Ferns' in their nicknames.

The musical note in the Utah Jazz's logo pays homage to which city, where the team began in 1974?

New Orleans was home to the Jazz for five seasons before the move to Salt Lake City in 1979. The name stayed because there was no time to get a new one approved before the next season.

The thirteen blue stars above the '7' in the Philadelphia 76ers' first logo were there to represent what?

The original colonies numbered thirteen, and the team's name recalls the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. A naming contest produced it.

The New Jersey Devils' logo joins an 'N' and a 'J', adding devil horns at the top and what below?

A pointed tail finishes the 'J', a nod to the Jersey Devil, the creature of legend said to haunt the Pine Barrens of South Jersey.

The NHL Whalers' classic logo hides which letter in the empty space between its 'W' and the whale's tail above?

H for Hartford appears in the gap between the two shapes, a trick devised by Connecticut graphic designer Peter Good. He was hired through an advertising agency to give the newly renamed NHL team a fresh emblem.

The Detroit Red Wings' logo attaches a wing to which object?

A wheel with a wing was the emblem of a Montreal athletic club that owner James Norris had once belonged to. He felt a red version would suit a team playing in the Motor City.

The shark in the San Jose Sharks' logo is chomping through which piece of equipment?

A stick has been in the shark's jaws since the team's first season in 1991–92. The triangle around the fish refers to the Red Triangle, an area of ocean off the Bay Area.

The St. Louis Cardinals' famous jersey emblem, first worn in 1922, shows two redbirds perched on what?

A bat, black at first and yellow from 1951, holds the two cardinals in the design fans call the 'birds on the bat'.

The Detroit Tigers' logo is a letter 'D' in a blackletter style popularly known by which name?

Old English is the popular label, even though that style of lettering was never used to write the Old English language. Detroit's home uniform has carried the 'D' with little change since 1934.

Minnie and Paul, the two players in the classic Minnesota Twins logo, shake hands across which river?

The Mississippi flows through both Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Twin Cities the team is named for. One figure wears a Minneapolis Millers uniform and the other a St. Paul Saints one.

The New York Mets' blue and orange honor which two National League clubs that left the city after 1957?

Dodgers and Giants colors, blue and orange respectively, were taken up when the Mets arrived in 1962. Both shades also appear on New York City's flag.

Which animal became the Philadelphia Athletics' emblem after John McGraw mocked the owner's investment?

An elephant, white to be exact, since McGraw had said the owner had a white one on his hands. Manager Connie Mack adopted it in defiance and handed McGraw a toy version at the 1905 World Series.

The New York Yankees' interlocking 'NY' first appeared on an 1877 police medal designed by which company?

Tiffany & Co. made the monogram for a medal of valor given to John McDowell, an officer shot in the line of duty. The ball club did not adopt it until 1909.

The New York Islanders' 1995 logo was mocked for resembling the mascot of which frozen seafood brand?

Gorton's fisherman, like the figure on the jersey, wears a slicker, and rival Rangers fans chanted for fishsticks long after. The earlier crest was fully restored by 1997–98.

Which span, drawn with its new eastern section, features in the Golden State Warriors' logo adopted in 2010?

The Bay Bridge links San Francisco with Oakland, where the Warriors were playing when the logo arrived. An earlier Warriors design had shown the Golden Gate Bridge instead.

The Boston Celtics' leprechaun logo was first drawn by Zang, the brother of which famous Celtics coach?

Red Auerbach's brother Zang Auerbach designed the figure, a leprechaun named Lucky who spins a basketball. The name and the mascot both nod to Boston's large Irish population.

Which NHL team's logo shows a Haida-style orca breaking out of ice to form a stylized letter 'C'?

Vancouver Canucks critics accused the 1997 design of being a plug for the team's parent company of the time, Orca Bay. The team's mascot is a killer whale named Fin.

Which team wore the NFL's first helmet logo in 1948, hand-painted by its halfback Fred Gehrke?

Los Angeles Rams halfback Fred Gehrke first painted two horns on a college helmet to show owner Dan Reeves. He took on the project to boost team morale.

Which NFL team's logo was drawn to mimic the combined outline of the two states it represents?

Carolina Panthers designers shaped the cat's head to follow the borders of North and South Carolina together. A 2012 redraw was the first logo change in team history.

Which university's oval 'G' helmet logo did coach Vince Dooley clear with the Green Bay Packers in 1964?

Georgia's new 'G' looked so much like the one Green Bay had worn since 1961 that Dooley asked first. The Packers hold the trademark and have also let Grambling State use a similar design.

Which Italian club replaced its traditional badge in 2017 with a stark black-and-white single-letter logotype?

Juventus president Andrea Agnelli said the stylised 'J' reflected the club's way of living. In 1958 the club had added a star above its badge to mark ten league titles, a custom other clubs later took up.

Which MLB team's first logo showed a robed figure in mid-swing inside a sun-like shape?

San Diego Padres means 'fathers' in Spanish, honoring the Franciscan friars who founded the city's mission in 1769. The Swinging Friar lives on as the team's mascot and a sleeve patch.

The design of the Boston Bruins' logo is a nod to which nickname for Boston?

The Hub is honored by eight spokes in black and gold, a design the Bruins have worn since 1948. Before that the jersey carried a plain block 'B'.

The Winnipeg Jets' logo, unveiled in 2011, is patterned after the roundel of which organization?

Royal Canadian Air Force roundels inspired the badge, which carries the silhouette of a CF-18 Hornet jet. It pays particular tribute to 17 Wing, the base in Winnipeg.

Real Madrid's crest lost which feature in 1931 and regained it in 1941?

The crown came off when the monarchy fell, and the club also had to drop 'Real' from its name. A mulberry band for the region of Castile took its place and was kept when the crown returned.

Adidas bought its three-stripe trademark in 1952 from which Finnish sports brand, partly paid in whiskey?

Karhu sold the stripes for the equivalent of 1,600 euros and two bottles of whiskey. Adidas founder Adi Dassler went on to describe his firm as the three stripes company.

Which Hall of Fame slugger is popularly, but wrongly, believed to be the batter in the MLB logo?

Harmon Killebrew is the name long attached to the 1968 design, but its creator worked from photographs of several players. The NBA's logo was deliberately based on it a year later.

The Portland Trail Blazers' pinwheel logo is a graphic interpretation of which scene from basketball?

Two teams lined up against each other, five against five, is the idea behind it, with one side red and the other black or white. A cousin of team founder Harry Glickman drew it.

The helmeted pirate on the Raiders' NFL shield logo was reportedly modeled on which Western film actor?

Randolph Scott's firm chin was the look requested when the emblem was commissioned from an unknown Berkeley artist. The pirate wears an eye patch under his helmet, in front of two crossed cutlasses.

The Kansas City Royals' shield logo was created by an artist working for which hometown company?

Hallmark Cards artist Shannon Manning drew the shield with the letters 'KC' inside. The greeting card company is based in Kansas City.

The landmark on Everton Football Club's crest is a real building from 1787 that originally served as what?

A jail of sorts: the Everton Lock-Up was an overnight holding place for local drunks and criminals. Club secretary Theo Kelly picked it in 1938 while designing a crest for a club necktie.

Which plant has featured on Celtic Football Club's badge since the 1930s?

A four-leaf clover has been the Glasgow club's emblem since it first used a badge, though it reached the shirts only in 1977. The earliest crest was a simple cross on a red oval.

The twin flames on Liverpool Football Club's crest were added in memory of which stadium disaster?

Hillsborough is remembered by an eternal flame at the memorial outside Anfield, which the two flames on the badge echo. The gates at the top of the crest are the Shankly Gates.

The hook at the bottom of Clemson University's Tiger Paw logo reproduces what on the real tiger it was molded from?

A scar on a Bengal tiger left the hook, because the print was taken from a mold supplied by the Field Museum of Natural History. The logo was introduced in 1970.