The T-Birds Logo: a Brief History

THE T-BIRDS LOGO: A BRIEF HISTORY

The Seattle Breakers finished their eighth season in the Western Hockey League in 1985. After that season, Earl Hale, a Calgary oil man, bought the Breakers.

Hale took up residence in Seattle and began to run the T-Birds franchise. He felt that the Breakers needed a new image. He wanted to change the perception from one of a rough and tumble team to one of an exciting, goal scoring hockey team. The best way to do this he thought would be to change the name of the franchise.

Hale contacted Vince Abbey, who owned the Seattle Totems trademark and name, about the Breakers changing their name to the Totems. Hale thought that combining the Totems NHL history with his team would be something that could change the image of the Breakers. Unfortunately for Hale, Abbey was not interested in releasing the Totems name for use by Hale’s team.

So Hale gathered up his office staff, which included current T-Birds Director of Operations, Rick Ronish, and they headed down to Tex’s Tavern on Fourth Avenue in Seattle. Tex’s Tavern was located near where the Experience Music Project (EMP) is located now. The staff threw out ideas and talked about possible names for the team. After some deliberation, and a few beers, Hale came up with Thunderbirds.

From that genesis of the Thunderbirds, the ball began to roll. Hale liked that the Thunderbirds could be seen as being similar to the Totems. He hired a graphic designer who started to work on a new logo. Hale made suggestions during the process, the most important being that the designer come up with something similar to the Totems logo.

After doing some drafting and drawing, the graphic designer created awood carving of what would be the franchises new logo. The logo that was created is almost completely similar to the current logo for the team, with only a few minor color changes over the years. That first wood carving of the logo hung over the entrance to the T-Birds locker room at the KeyArena for many years.

Over the next years the new T-Birds logo would appear on the hats, jerseys and sweatshirts of hockey fans in Seattle. It would be changed at times to fit special themed jersey nights, but overall has remained the same since the first creation of the logo.