Pittsburgh Penguins - Logos and Uniforms

Logos and Uniforms

• The original Penguins logo, used 1967–1968, Winter Classic 2011, Alternate Jersey 2011–Present

• Logo used 1968–1972, Winter Classic 2008; Alternate Jersey 2008–2011

• Logo used 1972–1992

• Logo used 1992–2001

• Alternate logo used 2001–2007 (the Penguins logo from 1992–2001 period, with a Vegas gold triangle as opposed to yellow)

• Pittsburgh's current logo, used since 2001 (the Penguins logo from the 1972–1992 period, with a Vegas gold triangle as opposed to yellow)

• Team wordmark, used 2003–2008

With the exception of the 1992–2001 period, the Penguins have used a variation of the "skating penguin" logo since the team's inception. For their inaugural season, the logo featured a hefty-looking skating penguin wearing a scarf, on a yellow triangle inside a circle reading "Pittsburgh Penguins". The yellow triangle is a reference to the Golden Triangle in the city of Pittsburgh. General manager Jack Riley felt the team's name and logo were ridiculous, and refused to have either appear on the team's uniforms, which featured only the word "PITTSBURGH" diagonally. A refined version of the logo appeared on a redesigned uniform in the second season, which removed the scarf and gave the penguin a sleeker, "meaner" look. The circle encompassing the logo was removed mid-season in 1971–72.

The team's colors were originally powder blue, navy blue, and white. The powder blue was changed to royal blue in 1973, but returned in 1977 when navy became the predominant uniform color. The team adopted the current black and gold color scheme in January 1980 (the announcement was made at halftime of Super Bowl XIV) to unify the colors of the city's professional sports teams, although like the Pirates and Steelers, the shade of gold more closely resembled yellow. The change was not without controversy, as the Boston Bruins protested by claiming to own the rights to the black and gold colors. However the Penguins cited the colors worn by the now-defunct NHL team Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1920s, thus were able to secure permission to use the black and gold colors.

This would remain unchanged until the 1992–93 season, when the team unveiled new uniforms and a new logo. The logo featured a modern-looking "flying penguin". Although the logo survived in various forms for 15 years, it received mixed responses from fans and was never as widely accepted as the "skating penguin" logo. Longtime KDKA anchor Bill Burns even went as far as calling the penguin in the logo "a pigeon."

After Mario Lemieux (a personal fan of the "skating penguin" logo) purchased the team from bankruptcy court in 1999, he announced plans to bring back the "skating penguin" logo. This occurred for the 2000–01 season, when the team revived the logo (albeit with a "Vegas gold" triangle instead of yellow) on the chest of the team's new alternate jerseys. In 2002–2003, the logo became the primary logo, and the "flying penguin" logo (also with a "Vegas gold" triangle instead of yellow) was relegated to secondary status, and only on the shoulders of the team's jerseys, until it was quietly retired in 2007 when the team introduced their version of the Rbk Edge uniforms.

The uniforms themselves have changed several times over the years. The original jerseys from the team's first season had diagonal text reading "Pittsburgh". Currently, only images of these uniforms survive, although the jersey is available in NHL Hitz 20-03 and several EA Sports NHL series games as an alternate jersey for the team. The uniforms themselves were discovered nearly thirty years later in a garbage bag by a Civic Arena employee at the arena. Due to the years of neglect in the bag, the uniforms were damaged beyond repair. The following season, a revised version of the logo was used on a completely redesigned uniform. Player names were first added in 1970.

Until 1977, the team had some minor striping patterns on the jerseys change every few years. But in 1977, the team basically adopted their longest-lasting uniform style to date and a style they would wear for the next 16 seasons, winning the Stanley Cup twice in the process. When the colors were swapped from blue and white to black and gold in 1980, the uniform patterns themselves remained unchanged. This was likely due to the fact that the change was made in the middle of the season. From the 1981–82 season to the 1984–85 season, the team had a gold "Sunday" jersey, called as such because the team only worn them on Sundays. This was a rare example of an NHL team having a third jersey before the rule allowing such jerseys was officially implemented in 1995.

After winning their second Stanley Cup in 1992, the team completely redesigned their uniforms and introduced the "flying penguin" logo. The team's away uniforms were somewhat of a throwback to the team's first season, as they revived the diagonal "Pittsburgh" script. In 1995, the team introduced their second alternate jersey, which was a black Penguins jersey with the team's logo and had blue accents, an obvious throwback to the original team colors. This jersey would prove to be so popular that the team adopted it as their away jersey in 1997.

In 2000, the team unveiled yet another alternate jersey, the aforementioned black jersey featuring the revival of the "skating penguin" logo. This would later prove to be a test to see how the revived logo would do with fans, and the following season became the team's away uniform with a white version as the team's home jersey. This time, the gold used is known as "Vegas gold", a more metallic shade. When the Rbk Edge jerseys were unveiled for the 2007–08 season leaguewide, the Penguins made some major striping pattern changes and quietly removed the "flying penguin" logo from the shoulders. They also added a "Pittsburgh 250" gold circular patch to the shoulders to commemorate the 250th birthday of the city of Pittsburgh.

While the Penguins, as with the rest of the NHL, have worn their dark jerseys at home since the league made the initiative to do so starting with the 2003–04 NHL season, the team wore their white jerseys in some home games during the 2007–08 NHL season and at least once during the 2008–09 NHL season, as well as wearing their powder blue, 1968–72 throwbacks against the Buffalo Sabres in the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic. On November 5, 2008, this jersey was introduced as the current third jersey. This was worn for select home games during the 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons. This throwback was supposedly to be retired with the introduction of a new dark blue third jersey that made its debut at the 2011 NHL Winter Classic at Heinz Field but it has been worn at several games since the Winter Classic. The new 2011 Winter Classic jersey was first worn as the third jersey against the LA Kings on February 10, 2011.

For the 2011–2012 season, the 2011 Winter Classic jersey is now the team's official third uniform, with the 2008 Winter Classic uniform being retired.