Uni Watch: The history of the wishbone-C logo
From SABR member Paul Lukas at Uni Watch on October 10, 2012:
The Reds are enjoying a pretty good postseason so far. For some of their players, it’s their first taste of the playoffs. For others, it’s a return to familiar territory. But for one key component of the Reds, the postseason is old hat — literally.
Uni Watch is referring to the Reds’ logo, colloquially known as the wishbone-C. The Reds first wore it in 1905, and they’ve worn it in some capacity every season since 1909.
But while the Reds are the MLB team most closely associated with the wishbone-C, they’re not the only team to have worn it on the diamond. The Cubs wore it for about 20 years, beginning in 1916; the Indians wore it for 40 years, beginning in 1933; and the Twins have always included it as part of their “TC” logo, which they’ve worn since the franchise moved to Minnesota in 1961.
And the wishbone-C isn’t just a baseball fixture. Over in the NFL, the Bears have been wearing the iconic logo on their helmets since 1962. And way back in the 1920s and ’30s, the Chicago Cardinals — progenitors of today’s Arizona Cardinals — wore the wishbone-C on their sleeves (a look that the franchise revived on a throwback uni in 1994).
Add it all up and the wishbone-C has been worn by eight World Series champions, one Super Bowl champion, one NFL champion (from the pre-Super Bowl era), 16 pennant winners, three conference champions, 20 division champions and four wild cards. That’s a pretty impressive record of achievement. (Yes, Yankees fans — we know, we know.)
Who first wore the wishbone-C, and who designed it? The Reds appear to be the first professional team to have worn it, but the logo was already in circulation on the college level by the time the Reds adopted it.
Read the full article here: http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/12724/the-uni-watch-history-of-the-wishbone-c
Originally published: October 10, 2012. Last Updated: October 10, 2012.