Our best logo! The tournament takes place on the ice as we take a look at our first hockey team so far, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins have won five Stanley Cups in their more than fifty seasons, including two consecutive titles in 1991 and ’92 and again in 2016 and ’17.
A special thanks to all who have participated in our previous surveys, the results of our poll of the Los Angeles Rams have been announced look here. If you missed it, before we all decided the best Washington Bullets / Wizards logo of all time, as much as the best logo of the Baltimore Orioles. So far we have around 15,000 votes cast in the tournament!
As always, we started today’s vote with a short history lesson on the Pittsburgh Penguins before we get to the poll, which is located at the bottom of this post.
How did the Pittsburgh Penguins get to your team?
Pittsburgh was home to a National Hockey League team several decades before the Penguins began playing in 1967. The Pittsburgh Pirates (yes, the same name as the baseball team) spent five seasons playing in the NHL from 1925 to 1930 before moving across the state for a one-time season as the Quakers of Philadelphia.
Forty-six years later, the NHL was in the midst of a massive expansion, doubling the league from six to twelve teams in time for the 1967-68 season. Hoping to bring the NHL back to the city, a group of local investors, led by Pennsylvania State Senator Jack McGregor, joined in and made their presentation to the NHL. The group’s offer was accepted, and for a $ 2 million fee, the league officially awarded a franchise on February 9, 1966. Pittsburgh would join Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, San Francisco-Oakland, and St. Louis as six sprawling cities for the following fall.
“[Getting this team was] a tribute to the people of Pittsburgh, who have been huge hockey fans for years, and to those who were instrumental in building the Civic Arena, ”said Senator McGregor at the time.
Why are Pittsburgh penguins called penguins?
Fans wanted to be called the Hornets, after the American Hockey League team of the same name, but the AHL team still used the name. In the early days of 1967, before the team announced any names, journalists in nearby markets began referring to the new club as the “Pittsburgh Penguins,” referring to the igloo shape of the Pittsburgh Civic Arena’s dome. .
On February 9, 1967, the team made the Penguins name official after a contest to name the team. 356 different names were suggested from more than 26,000 entries. In the end, 716 presented the winning name “Penguins”. Other popular suggestions included hornets, pioneers, pipers, and golden triangles.
When asked why they chose Penguins as their name, club treasurer Pete Block told the Post-Gazette: “It seemed natural, the penguin lives on ice; hockey players make a living on ice, and there is the nickname ‘Big Igloo’, which has become part of the Civic Arena. ”
Pittsburgh Penguins Logo History
the The Pittsburgh penguins have had several different logos over the years, but one thing has been consistent in all designs. The Golden Triangle, a reference to the nickname for the Pittsburgh area. The golden hue in that triangle may have changed over the years, as has the penguin’s appearance, but no matter what year you tune in to the hockey penguin, that team has a golden triangle somewhere on their logo.
For its expansion season in 1967-68, the Penguins introduced us to the penguin skating and holding sticks that we had all loved for the next half century. The first iteration included a scarf tied around his neck and was placed inside a round with the team name written around it in blue. This logo lasted only one season.
In the second year, the scarf was removed (they figured out how to get the heating system to work on the “Igloo” I guess) and the penguin itself took on a new look. The golden triangle remained, of course, but the circle surrounding the logo was updated.
After a few seasons, the penguin finally came out of that circle, bringing the logo that won two Stanley Cups and gave the NHL characters like Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. Until January 1980, penguins he wore blue as his primary color (despite the logo being black and gold), after the Pirates won the ’79 World Series and the Steelers won the Super Bowl in January ’80, the Penguins switched to black and gold mid-season to support his city mates. The Bruins protested, saying they were the only black and gold team allowed in the NHL, but the Penguins successfully argued against this, noting that the original NHL pirates who wore black and gold several years before even the Bruins.
Immediately after the consecutive cups, the Penguins abandoned their classic logo in 1992 in favor of what is commonly known as the “Robo-Penguin”. A modernized profile of a penguin placed in a golden triangle with multiple horizontal lines to show movement.
The golden hue was slightly lightened in 1999.
As is often the case (and you’ll see a lot during this tournament), fans finally got tired of the radical redesign and demanded a change to the past. And as the team’s response is usually, they met the fans halfway. In 2002 the skating penguin returned, but now in a “Vegas Gold” triangle.
In 2006, gold lightened considerably, apparently helping the team win a couple of Stanley Cups.
Finally, the fans pushed hard enough, and after the 2016 Stanley Cup victory, the original “Pittsburgh Gold” returned for 2017 … and then they won the cup again!
Now that you know the entire history of the Penguins’ identity, it’s time for you to choose the best primary logo they’ve ever used. Since Penguins are a team that recycled the same basics over and over again, I will again allow voters to choose up to two logos as the best ever. I’m also combining the two minor color adjustments into unique options, so the two “RoboPenguins” will be one and the two “Vegas Gold” penguins.
Thanks again for taking the time to read this and vote, later this week we will take this tournament back to Major League Baseball. Be sure to check it out.
And of course don’t forget to check out our other previous winning logos so far Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles Ramsand Washington Wizards.
