Origins of the Detroit Red Wings Logo

The Red Wings, the NHL's No. 1 team from start to finish in the regular season, showed great performance to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-0. So they made progress toward reaching their main and only goal – the Stanley Cup. But think for a moment about the Detroit Red Wings Logo… How it became a trade mark of the team? The winged wheel logo was actually borrowed from a cycling club in Montreal. Here's how it happened.

(Video:  2007-08 Detroit Red Wings)

When the Western Canada Hockey League folded after the 1925–26 WHL season, a deal was made, so that a new NHL expansion franchise in Detroit bought the rights to the players of one of the most successful of the teams in that league, the 1925 Stanley Cup champion Victoria Cougars. The team was known as the Detroit Cougars for a couple of years, then the Falcons.

(Video:  Detroit Red Wings Tribute)

In 1932, a millionaire named James Norris bought the team. Norris' first act was to choose a new name - the Red Wings. Norris had been a member of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, a sporting club with cycling roots. The MAAA's teams were known by their club emblem and these Winged Wheelers were the first winners of the Stanley Cup in 1893. Because of the team’s location in Detroit, the Motor City, Norris transformed the club's logo and on October 5, 1932 the club was renamed the Red Wings.

(Video:  A tribute video for Steve Yzerman. He is a former professional hockey player who played his entire National Hockey League career with the Detroit Red Wings.)