Thanks for joining us as we take a look at some NFL logo history! This week we are looking at The Kansas City Chiefs logo history and the Atlanta Falcons logo history. Here we go!
The Dallas Texans were founded in 1960. Their first logo was designed by Bob Taylor, a cartoonist for the Dallas Times Herald. The logo was a cowboy, who was carrying a gun, and a football. An outline of the state of Texas is seen in the background.
The team moved to Kansas City in 1963 and changed the name to the Kansas City Chiefs. They named the team in honor of the mayor at the time, Harold Roe Bartle. He was nick-named the “The Chief” after many years being on the executive board for the Boy Scouts.
Bob Taylor, was once again, commissioned to create a new logo. The logo was very similar to the Texas logo. This logo depicted a Native American carrying a football and a red tomahawk. He was striding in the same position as the cowboy. This time the outline of Texas was replaced by Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Arkansas.
The only main change to the uniforms was made to the helmet. The logo was an interlocking “KC”. It was in a white arrowhead that was drawn with a thick black line. It was drawn on a napkin on an airplane by Lamar Hunt. This is the logo that we are most familiar with, but it didn’t become the official logo until 1972 when they were promoting the opening of Arrowhead Stadium.
The Atlanta Falcons started their first season in 1966. Their original logo was designed by Verlander Design. The logo was a black and white falcon in flight. It was outlined with a thin red line. The falcon could also be seen as a capital letter “F”. In 1990 the red outline was replaced with a black line.
In 2003, they made a more drastic change to the logo. The typeface was custom made, and name falcons, in honor of the team. The falcon beak and talon became more rounded and defined. Red was added to the inside and it was outlined in silver. This current logo includes all the team colors – black, white, red, and silver.
The Atlanta Falcons logo history is much shorter than many other NFL teams, purely because they found a design, the falcon, that represented what they strive to be as a team. The falcon often symbolizes speed, strength, determination, and superiority. Those are all great qualities to be found in a team.
And that wraps up round 2 of our NFL logo teams history. What are your thoughts? Which design best embodies the teams spirit or local history?
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