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The Complete Jersey History of the Detroit Red Wings




At first you don't see a lot of change...but it's there.

Hockey in Detroit actually started in the Pacific Coast League with the Victoria Cougars who when the league folded in 1925, the then Stanley Cup champion, Cougars melded into a new franchise in the Motor City. The team would keep the name till 1930 when they became the Falcons. New owner, James Norris, changed the name to the Red Wings in 1932. (The name is based on the Montreal team Norris had played on who were nicknamed the "Winged Wheelers" - courtesy of Wikipedia). The name would stick, and so would the Norris family who held control of the team till 1982.

The "winged wheel" logo has gone through a number of changes, first in 1934 when the white away jersey was introduced, and then again in 1948 when the modern logo with equally proportioned wing and wheel appeared. The size of the logo has also changed, first becoming large and completely centered in 1982 (the same year the Red Wings made the only change to their number and lettering - see here). For that one year the crests were also outlined with contrasting strokes.

One element to the jerseys that is often overlooked is the color of the logo. Although the team has used identical crests on both home and away sweaters since 1984, before that they used two different ones. To make it more confusing they switched which jerseys they were used on in the mid-seventies (and once again in the 80's.) Between 1934 and 1973 the red sweaters used a predominantly white logo, while the white sweaters used a red one. As stated they reversed these in '73, and then switched them back in '82.

The design of the red jersey has remained virtually unchanged since it first appeared in 1932 (top jersey shown), the white jersey of today first appeared in 1956. Previously the team had used a matching uniform with inverted colors (second jersey above). It has been contended that it will be this jersey that the team will wear against the Blackhawks at the Winter Classic on New Years Day 2009.

The Red Wings are the only team in the NHL who have never had an alternate (third jersey) besides the New Jersey Devils (and until recently the Carolina Hurricanes.) The only times they have worn anything other than their traditional sweaters have been on the occasions they've worn the last one shown above. First for the NHL's 75th Anniversary celebrations in 1991-92, and then again for one final game at Chicago Stadium against the Blackhawks in 1994. The design is based on the Detroit Cougars jerseys used in 1927-28.

Thanks to NHLUniforms.com for the info and research used to create these jerseys.

All of the jerseys have been added to the site here in the Jersey Fronts section including the Cougars and Falcons and can be viewed in chronological order in a gallery format here:

Red Wings jersey History (select to view as Images).

Posted by KP
Link to this Post    Tags: Detroit Red Wings Jersey Fronts Jersey Database NHL History

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