In 1979, the Hartford Whalers joined the NHL as part of the WHA-NHL merger, and as a result of that merger they introduced one of the greatest sports logos of all time. The “Whale Tail” logo became an instant classic, with its striking design featuring a stylized “W” intertwined with a whale’s tail. Unfortunately for Hartford, after the team’s relocation to North Carolina in 1997 the team rebranded as the Hurricanes, which shelved the Whale Tail logo permanently. In today’s video we’ll take a look back at how this iconic design came to be and why the logo continues to be so popular.
WHA Years
In November of 1971, the World Hockey Association (a rival hockey league to the NHL) granted a franchise to the New England Whalers as one of the 12 original founding members of the league. The Whalers ownership group was headed mainly by Howard Baldwin, a film producer and CEO of Baldwin Entertainment. Baldwin, apart from being the team’s owner, would also become the WHA league president in 1977. He would retain ownership of the Whalers for the next 17 years when he sold his remaining share in 1988. The Whalers name itself is a nod to the maritime past of the New England area. But also cleverly, the team name was a subtle nod to the founding league they played in, as the first three letters in whalers is W-H-A, which represents the World Hockey Association. The club’s first logo was a simple W with a harpoon through the middle of it, which they used throughout the majority of the 1970’s. But one of the team’s most famous logos was also introduced around this time, a cartoon smiling whale was used as the Whalers alternate logo. The smiling whale, which was designed by the mother in law of the Whalers assistant general manager Ron Ryan, would eventually be known as “Pucky” the whale through a fan vote. Pucky would primarily be used as a shoulder patch logo until the mid 1980’s when they dropped the logo from the uniform. While Pucky was never actually seen as a physical mascot during the Whaler’s time in Hartford, he did reappear as a mascot for the club’s old AHL team the Hartford Wolf Pack in 2010. Although the club’s first years in the WHA were fairly successful, with the club winning the first ever WHA championship in 1973, the Whalers split their home games between the Boston Garden and the Boston Arena. The situation became untenable due to the difficulty of securing home dates at the Garden, and the Boston Arena being too small of a venue. By the mid 1970’s, the Whalers agreed to move into a brand new arena being built in Hartford, Connecticut. The club officially relocated prior to the 1974-75 season, but at the start of that season their new home arena was still under construction. So the Whalers played in West Springfield Massachusetts, at the Big E arena for the first half of the season until their new home arena could be completed. On January 11, 1975, the club played their first game at the Hartford Civic Center and the arena would serve as the home of the Whalers for the rest of their time in Conninecut. Throughout their early years, the Whalers were perennial playoff contenders. The team never missed the playoffs during their WHA years, and won their division three times. This was due in part to the Whalers strategic signing of promising talent and former NHL stars, like Gordie Howe, and his two sons Mark and Marty in 1977.
The Whale Tail Logo
By 1979, the NHL and the WHA agreed to merge, with four of the remaining six WHA teams joining the NHL. At the time of the merger the Whalers were still officially known as the New England Whalers. This was an issue for the Boston Bruins, who opposed the merger of the two leagues because they didn’t want to have to share the same geographical market as the Whalers. The NHL insisted that as part of the merger, the Whalers would have to drop the name “New England” and instead be known as the “Hartford Whalers”. Because of the new name change, and the NHL merger, the Whalers decided to make a major update to their logo. The team used Jack Lardis advertising agency to come up with a new brand identity. The Whalers initially wanted a simple graphic that steered away from anything violent towards Whales, which was in contrast to their older logo that had depictions of a harpoon in it. Graphic designer Peter Good was assigned the task, and came up with several different designs featuring whales and a stylized W. One of the early designs that was actually picked by the Whalers front office was one that looked much like the Seattle Mariners trident logo from the same time period. Although it was approved, this version of the Whalers logo never was used because Good felt he could come up with better versions and offered to keep working on it. Eventually, Good came up with the idea of placing a Whale’s tail on top of the stylized W, since the two shapes were symmetrical. The negative space between the whale’s tail and the W, created an “H” shape (that stood for Hartford.) The negative space coincidentally also created a shape that resembled two downward facing hockey sticks. Good had this to say about coming up with the logo,”I was bothered by the idea of harpoons anyway because their mascot is a whale. So why would you have a symbol that suggests killing your mascot? That seems contradictory. So I said, what do we have to work with? I have the letterforms ‘W’ and ‘H’ and I have a whale. And whales are kind of amorphous creatures. They’re not like a tiger where you could characterize it very simply. But the whale’s tail is very, very formally interesting. It’s symmetrical. So you have three symmetrical elements to play with. This was a gift.” Good said that he was paid about $2000 for his work on the logo. The front office loved the new logo, and actually had Good help design new uniforms for the team. The simplicity of the “W”, the Whale Tail, and the negative space that forms the “H” shape, created a striking design that is immediately recognizable. The club continued the use the Whale Tail logo for the rest of their time in Hartford, with only slight updates to the design. Which was unusual for a small market team given that typically when a franchise sees their attendance and merchandise sales begin to dip, oftentimes a full logo rebrand and uniform update is initiated to boost sales and interest. Even after the Whalers fell on hard times during the early part of the 1990’s, the team knew better than to completely rebrand. Instead, in 1992 the Whalers updated the iconic Whale-Tail logo by adding a gray background, with a white outline on the “W” and tail parts of the logo. While also including a blue outline on the gray background. They also introduced a blue away jersey for the first time, moving away from the green road jersey that they had worn since the 1970’s.
Final Years
Before the start of the 1994-95 season, the Whalers were sold to a group led by Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, along with business partners Thomas Thewes (TH-EWS) and Jim Rutherford. During this time, Karmanos had promised to keep the Whalers in Hartford for at least the next four seasons even though the Whalers continued to have issues with low attendance, and being able to attract corporate sponsorships. The situation became dire enough that the team announced prior to the start of the 1996-97 season that if they couldn’t sell 11,000 season tickets, the team would have to consider relocation. The front office decided that selling season tickets in full 41 game packages was better than trying to sell mini plans, which were typically more attractive to corporate businesses. To drive up sales quickly, a local campaign nicknamed “Save the Whale” was started by the team’s fans which helped dramatically increase season ticket purchases. In just 45 days the team sold 8,563 ticket sales, even with the Whalers increasing prices from the previous year by 20 percent. Also during this time the Whalers were looking for funds to build a new arena in Hartford. John Rowland, the governor of Connecticut stated that he didn’t want to use taxpayer dollars to pay for a new arena. Negotiations between the state and the Whalers continued, with the Whalers requesting $147.5 million for the arena but also an extra $45 million that would be used to cover losses of expenses during the three year construction period. The extra $45 million would become the sticking point of a potential deal, with Governor Rowland refusing to put up the funds. After negotiations broke down, the Whalers formally announced that they would leave Hartford and look for relocation sites after the 1996-97 season, in a rare move where a team announced their departure from the city before securing a new home. The Whalers briefly looked at sites in Norfolk Virginia, but found that not only did the city not have an NHL ready arena but there was little interest in a season ticket drive from the local community. Meanwhile, Governor Rowland tried to leverage the money that would have gone to the Whalers to attract the New England Patriots to move to Hartford instead. The plan backfired however, when the Patriots decided to remain closer to Boston and build their new stadium in Foxborough. Governor Rowland would later be impeached and convicted on corruption charges in 2004, and would again be convicted ten years later on numerous charges on conspiracy and illegal campaign contributions. Jumping back to the Whalers, On May 6, 1997 after finding a site in Raleigh, North Carolina, The Whalers officially announced their relocation to the city, to become the Carolina Hurricanes. Although now gone, the Whalers legacy lives on as their merchandise, featuring the iconic Whale Tail logo is still to this day one of the most popular selling items. In fact, Reebok and Fanatics have said that it’s their top selling defunct team from the NHL. In 2013, Complex ranked the top 25 sports logos of all time, and listed the Hartford Whalers as the second greatest logo only behind the New York Yankees.
The Hartford Whalers logo is one of the most iconic and cleverly designed logos in sports history. Despite the Whalers’ relocation to become the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997, the Hartford Whalers logo remains a beloved symbol of the team’s legacy and is celebrated by hockey fans for its artistic simplicity and creativity.
What did you think about Complex ranking the Whalers logo number 2 on their all time greatest sports logos list? Would you rank it even higher than that, or lower? Let me know in the comments below!
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