A Deep Look at the History of the Toronto Maple Leafs Logo
As an original six franchise, the Toronto Maple Leafs have gone through many changes. Those changes have been behind the bench, on the ice, and on the front of their jersey. Not only has the logo gone through some different looks but so has the material it is made of. Changes also ranged from being made by Reebok to CCM to Adidas and also the lettering is different as well. Jerseys are often referred to as sweaters, going back to the golden days when players would actually wear sweaters when playing the game. The Jerseys are now made by Adidas and are known as Primegreen jerseys, made from 50% recycled materials.
The early jerseys worn by Toronto teams were made of wool and featured a very plain design. The Maple Leaf’s jerseys are primarily white and blue, except for the St. Pats jerseys, which are green and white. Why are the Maple Leaf’s jerseys blue and white and not red and white? Conn Smythe, former Maple Leaf’s owner, and builder of the famous Maple Leaf Gardens had switched the team name to the Maple Leafs after taking control of the team to commemorate a World War 1 regiment. Upon doing so he changed the colors to blue and white as a sign of his long-time involvement with the University of Toronto Blues.
During the 1917 season, the Toronto Arenas wore a plain, primary logo as their jersey. The jersey was simple as it only sported a scripted letter “T” on the front as the crest. Nothing flashy, nothing notable. Just a simple design to represent the city of Toronto.
That design changed during the 1918-1919 season as the logo received a bit of a makeover. The letter “T” still stood but the new and improved version had the word “Arenas” behind the letter “T” to represent the Toronto Arenas team.
In the seasons from 1919-1922, the team and logo got a makeover as the team was renamed the Toronto St. Patrick’s and the main color changed to green. The third logo of the Toronto St. Patrick’s features the St. Pats word as the main part of the crest and a green scripted name of the city just above this to complete the jersey.
From the 1922 season until the 1925 season the logo changed yet again. This look was a bit odd as it featured the words “St. Pats” inscribed inside a background shaped like a pill with a green color.
From 1925-1926 the logo was different again as the logo was a throwback to the 1920 logo. The words “Toronto” and “St. Pats” were featured on the top and bottom and were a lighter green shade this time.
The 1926-27 season saw the franchise acquired by Conn Smythe and renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs. The first team logo featured a white team name inside of a green maple leaf, which was right in the middle of the jersey.
In the 1927-1928 season the logo was changed from green to blue and that would stay the same for the next ten years. The logo would then remain the same and the only change was the color of the maple leaf.
After a ten-year period, the logo changed ever so slightly. The entire logo crest remained the same except the maple leaf had a slightly different shape, this time with white veins.
This stayed the same until the 1964 season when the logo designers added some small details to make the logo look more realistic. The logo now featured a blue maple leaf with white veins but now included a white inner outline.
The 1968 season would see a dramatic change to the logo. The logo was changed to an 11-point maple leaf as the center point of the jersey, the same 11-point maple leaf that is on the Canadian flag. The new logo had a new look that gave it more intense edges and a silhouette.
The 1971 Maple Leaf logo went through some more changes, albeit minor ones. The new logo had even sharper edges than the previous one and the “Toronto Maple Leafs” wording was changed to a bolder, cleaner font.
The Maple Leaf logo in 1971 stayed the same until 1987 when the logo was updated again, again with small but noticeable changes. The blue color had changed, becoming a deeper and darker blue, while the team name was written in white.
Finally, the logo from 2016 until the present time was to celebrate the franchise as a whole. The new logo was a crest that was combining the iconic crest worn in both the 1940 and 1960 seasons. The new logo combined the new featured additions that had been added over the past few seasons.No contour lines, but everything else remained somewhat the same, adding ribbed edges to let one know that it was in fact a maple leaf. The new 31-point surrounding the edges were to represent 1931, the opening of the iconic building Maple Leaf Gardens. The 13 streaks at the top represent the number of Stanley Cups won by the franchise. 17 more streaks were added to represent the founding year of the franchise, 1917.
Quite the history for such a storied franchise. This information above with the Hall of Famers that played for Toronto gives an all-around vintage feel to the organization. So many memories and so many stories to be told of one of the original six franchises.