Walter Goldbach, The Accidental Marketing Genius

In the world of sports, particularly baseball, certain logos have acquired an almost iconic status. The Gothic capital D says “Tigers,” and the fringed B and two red socks say … well, you know. Subtle variations on the interlocking N and Y distinguish the Mets from the Yankees from the Giants, whose current logo, the interlocking orange S and F, has become probably as familiar as their New York logo ever was. Standing out among this staid company and arguably more famous, or infamous, than his alphabetic counterparts is Chief Wahoo, the face of the Cleveland Indians. Walter Goldbach, the artist who created that face-the original version, that is, the father of the Chief Wahoo who currently serves on cap and uniform and all manner of merchandise-is, by contrast, himself self-effacing, as anonymous as any pedestrian on the street.

It was midway through the 1946 season that Bill Veeck, fresh from his service as a Marine in World War II, bought the Indians and changed the business of baseball forever, injecting fireworks and promotional giveaways into the fan’s experience of attending a major-league baseball game. Looking to add to the profile of his newly acquired franchise a logo in the form of an appealing cartoon that would convey a spirit of pure joy and unbridled enthusiasm, he approached the J. F. Novak Company, a local firm that specializes in signs and emblems. The job fell to one of its newer employees, a seventeen-year-old high-school student, Walter Goldbach, who went to work sketching the face that would lift the hearts of generations of Cleveland baseball fans. Adopted by the Indians in 1947, Goldbach’s illustration is unlikely to be confused with the update that was introduced four years later, in 1951. Goldbach’s Wahoo cartoon was orange, not red; the nose was larger, and in his version Chief Wahoo has a ponytail.

Goldbach, now in his late seventies, remains an avid Indians fan and humble about his enduring achievement. He and his wife had been married five years before she knew he was the artist who drew what is arguably the most famous face in all of Cleveland. As for the controversy that has cropped up around Chief Wahoo more recently, Goldbach explains that “the last thing on my mind was trying to offend anybody.”

“Laughter is in far too short of supply in this society, and causes are in far too great of supply,” said Mike Veeck in 2001, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of a stunt engineered by his father, Bill. In 1951, the year Goldbach’s version of Chief Wahoo was succeeded by the current version, Eddie Gaedel, a little person—or midget, in the parlance of the day—made his one appearance in the major leagues, an at-bat for the hapless St. Louis Browns. “We’ re just trying to add enjoyment to the game,” Mike Veeck explained. “If people feel so strongly about an issue, I suggest they pick up a pen and write a letter or something.”

 

SOURCES

Affleck, John. “Owner to Decide Fate of Chief Wahoo.” nativenews@mlists.net, May 28, 1999.

Bethany-Alford, Kemberlee. “A Quiet Sort of Fame: Winter Haven Man Drew Indians Logo in 1947.” polkonline.com, March 24, 2003.

Outside the Lines. ESPN, August 19, 2001.