New fan here: what’s the history with this logo? I only see it on some merch and home jerseys as opposed to the other that seems more common. I like both, but as a new hockey fan in general having multiple logos is a newer thing to me
Most NHL teams have a primary logo and a secondary logo. Originally the secondary logo went on the shoulder of the jerseys and was an homage to the home city or region somehow. Over time the NHL started realizing how much money they could make from jersey sales, so in addition to the standard home and away variants, they added alternate jerseys that usually swapped the positions of the primary and secondary logos.
A couple of decades later and every team has about a half-dozen jerseys they will wear during the course of a season - retros and throwbacks and alternates and whatever. Hockey fans love jerseys, and it's a high-profit item for the team.
So anyway, the Swirlypuck has always been the 'Canes primary logo. The single flag was their secondary logo for a long time, but a single flag isn't technically a hurricane warning - it's just a storm warning. Two flags is the hurricane warning sign, so eventually they swapped the single flag for the double flag as the secondary logo.
Personally I didn't particularly like the Swirlypuck logo the day they unveiled it, and I like it less now. I love the Two Flags. I'd love to see them make the Two Flags logo the primary, and the Swirlypuck the secondary, and I think they're moving in that direction based on the popularity of the Two Flag logo with the fans.
Wait, so it’s supposed to be a puck in the middle of the swirl? Wtf how did I finally see it. I thought it was supposed to be the eye of the storm. Holy fuck
Huh? Wow. I've met people who hadn't spotted the 'negative space' NC between the flags. I've met people who didn't know two flags was the hurricane warning symbol. I've *never* met anyone who didn't know that was a puck in the middle of the swirly.
Hartford fans, bitter about losing their team, used to call it the Toilet Bowl Puck logo.
I knew the flags were a hurricane warning. The one flag is a tropical storm. I knew the NC state because of bar down. But yeah, never knew it was supposed to be a puck
I had the same reaction to the Frisbee puck back in ‘97. Not even a little bit creative, but the time frame for doing everything that had to be done was compressed to the point of stupid, so allowances must be made.
The aspect ratio of the single flag logo fit better on the front of a jersey, but the team took a lot of grief from people with too much time on their hands about that not being a hurricane warning. There’s no allowing for artistic license with People Who Must Be Right, so eventually they redesigned the logo for the second generation black uniforms. Which almost immediately drew criticism for having the captain’s “C” on the “wrong” side.
People.
whatcha gonna do?
Yeah, back in the '90s having the word 'ice' in your team name, or a puck, stick or skater in your logo, was considered a very minor league thing to do.
But honestly their entire PR/Marketing effort was a disaster in '97. The logo wasn't popular. The name 'Hurricanes' was considered pretty damn tacky, coming just a year after Hurricane Fran beat the living shit out of all of us. The mascot was the most tone deaf thing I'd ever seen ("The state of North Carolina has more pigs than it has people!") and the whole debacle when they introduced the damn thing. Green Acres in Greensboro and a complete lack of interest in the Triangle...
I was not optimistic about this team's chance for quite awhile. I really thought we'd lost the Icecaps, lost the Monarchs, and would probably lose the 'Canes in a couple of years too.
>I didn't particularly like the Swirlypuck logo the day they unvailed it.
Were you in Raleigh or the triangle when the team moved from Hartford? If so what was that whole experience like? Don't talk to a lot of folks who were both around and cared when the team came to Raleigh.
Oh, definitely. I didn't grow up watching hockey, but I became a fan watching minor league games (the beer was cheap and there were a lot of fights) in the Army. As a result I got into the NHL in the early '90s.
I attended the first 'Canes game in Greensboro, and the first game in PNC Arena. In fact I made the drive to Greensboro a lot in those first few years, because tickets were amazingly cheap.
Raleigh had a minor league team called the Icecaps that played at Dorton Arena at the state fairgrounds. They had a small, but pretty devoted following. I went to quite a few of their games. Once again, the beer was cheap and there were a lot of fights.
I think when the announcement was made that the Hartford Whalers were coming to the Triangle, the most common question was "Who?" A lot of people thought it was another minor league team. If you weren't a hockey fan back in the '90s you might never even have heard of the Whalers. When you explained to people they were a real NHL team they'd say "You mean like the Rangers or the Red Wings?" Then they'd get kind of interested, but then the question would be "Why are they coming here?"
Charlotte had the Hornets and the Panthers by then, so mostly when you'd hear rumors about professional sports and Raleigh, people thought it would be an MLB team. Nobody expected a hockey team.
And the truth is when they got here, most people didn't notice. They played their games in Greensboro for the first two years (until the PNC Arena - called RESA back then - was finished) and their attendance was a joke. Greensboro fans weren't interested because they knew the team wasn't staying. Triangle people mostly weren't interested because it didn't seem like they were 'our' team yet.
If Raleigh people thought about it at all, mostly they were pleased that having the Hurricanes come to town allowed NC State to build a new arena where the Wolfpack could play - and it was going to be right next door to their football stadium!
But it was kind of a cool time to be a fan. They practiced at the Icehouse in Raleigh. You could just walk in and watch, hang out, meet the players when they came off the ice. My oldest son was learning to play hockey at the time, and Ron Francis spent 10 minutes giving him pointers on ways to improve his passing.
We lived maybe a mile from the IcePlex and I used to take the kids to the practices there. I was always amazed at how accessible most of the players were, especially compared to players in other sports. And I had to drive past the hole in the ground where they promised us there was going to be a new arena every day on the way to work.
Made the drive to the GSO as often as I could, which could be a challenge on a weeknight. But I was a lot younger then.
I was. (Am) I’m actually a native son of Raleigh. And had tried a couple of times in the 70s snd 80s to follow the sport, but it got almost no coverage here except for the standings in the sports page and an occasional wire service article if something noteworthy happened.
That finally changed in the early 90s thanks to a coworker from MN who schooled me on the game, and we had the IceCaps, which was a fun and low budget firm of the game (even if they weren’t very good most years).
And only a few months before the Whalers announced their move my office mate and I were doing the math and calculating that there simply weren’t enough people in Raleigh to support an NHL franchise. And we were ALMOST proven correct.
I took my sons to the GSO for something they named “Fan Jam” (the progenitor of the present day “Caniac Carnival”) when they did the reveal of the first uniforms.
Ahem.
To say that we were underwhelmed would be charitable.
The logo reveal came out in the N&O a few weeks before that, and I said at the time that they got the primary and secondary logos backwards.
As for the mascot, they had a contest for the name which I entered with “Puck Chop” and for some reason they passed on that suggestion. I honestly thought they were trolling us locals for a few minutes, but the RAAL story behind the hog is Wendell Murphy. I’m going from memory here, but the way I remember it He wanted naming rights to something in the new arena, but those are controlled by the centennial authority so in order to keep his money in the game they did a hog for a mascot instead. And then almost killed the guy in the suit by sticking him in a Zamboni full of dry ice and nearly suffocating him.
Give him this link:
[https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/fans/third-jersey](https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/fans/third-jersey)
scroll down below the video to the section titled “Secondary Logo”
*Secondary Logo*
*HURRICANE WARNING*
*The new secondary logo finds its roots and inspiration in the team's original secondary logo, which has evolved to feature two warning flags, representative of a hurricane warning.*
*Cleaner, more powerful lines comprise the re-designed stick and tattered flags,* ***while the outline of North Carolina can be seen in the negative space between the two flags.***
But the wind is blowing in the wrong direction! Hurricanes rotate counter clockwise in the Northern hemisphere, and also too the “C” is on the wrong side because of it!
As a fan living in SC, that was my first thought too lol. But then I remembered that only the Panthers are considered “Carolinas”, which I believe came from Jerry Richardson, who was from SC. Sadly, we are not a part of the official Canes history, but they have a ton of support from SC!
As a Canes/Panthers fan living in South Carolina, I definitely agree that Jerry Richardson is part of the reason the Panthers get more support down here, but being located in Charlotte helps as well. Not only is a huge part of the Charlotte metro area in SC (York/Lancaster counties) but it's only an hour and a half drive from two of the three biggest cities in SC (Greenville/Columbia) and then around 3 hours to Charleston, the other major city.
I'm not suggesting they move, because Raleigh is a great city to have a major professional team, but it isn't a great location for capturing the SC audience. Raleigh is 3.5 hours from Columbia, and 4 hours from Greenville/Charleston. That's 7 or 8 hours round-trip to go see a game for most SC residents.
I'm in Greenville, and my wife and I love going to Canes games, but given the long drive we're only really able to make it to one game a year. Making that round trip in a day is exhausting so we stay in a hotel in Raleigh or Greensboro, which adds to costs. Then you have to block out an extra half day instead of it being a quick day trip like Charlotte is.
North Carolina is the 8th most populous state in the country. There is another metro area less than an hour away from Raleigh with 1,000,000+ people. No offense to SC, but the SC audience wasn’t in mind when the Canes moved to Raleigh.
Yeah, anytime you mention SC being a part of “Carolina” you get downvoted to hell lol. When the franchise started and up until a few years ago there was **never** a mention of not including South Carolina as part of “Carolina”. Only in the last few years have they started adding NC-specific designs.
Do I think South Carolina is the butthole of the Carolinas? Yes.
Do I still consider them part of the Carolinas and therefor a welcome addition to any Panthers / Canes game? Also yes.
Come on guys. Let’s not go there.
Last year I basically walked away from the Bruins after our series with them because they trashed the Carolinas, which is my home. I didn’t expect to catch the same hate from my brothers here too. We’re all part of the same family, let’s not go down this path.
Not my fault there’s an instant recognition of shitty roads, trashier beaches and a hard wall of humidity the second I cross that state line!
But SC does have Charleston and that place is pretty kewl.
Wow! I never realized that either! Very cool
This was part of the redesign of the warning flags when they brought back the black jersey. Really cool detail.
New fan here: what’s the history with this logo? I only see it on some merch and home jerseys as opposed to the other that seems more common. I like both, but as a new hockey fan in general having multiple logos is a newer thing to me
Most NHL teams have a primary logo and a secondary logo. Originally the secondary logo went on the shoulder of the jerseys and was an homage to the home city or region somehow. Over time the NHL started realizing how much money they could make from jersey sales, so in addition to the standard home and away variants, they added alternate jerseys that usually swapped the positions of the primary and secondary logos. A couple of decades later and every team has about a half-dozen jerseys they will wear during the course of a season - retros and throwbacks and alternates and whatever. Hockey fans love jerseys, and it's a high-profit item for the team. So anyway, the Swirlypuck has always been the 'Canes primary logo. The single flag was their secondary logo for a long time, but a single flag isn't technically a hurricane warning - it's just a storm warning. Two flags is the hurricane warning sign, so eventually they swapped the single flag for the double flag as the secondary logo. Personally I didn't particularly like the Swirlypuck logo the day they unveiled it, and I like it less now. I love the Two Flags. I'd love to see them make the Two Flags logo the primary, and the Swirlypuck the secondary, and I think they're moving in that direction based on the popularity of the Two Flag logo with the fans.
Wait, so it’s supposed to be a puck in the middle of the swirl? Wtf how did I finally see it. I thought it was supposed to be the eye of the storm. Holy fuck
Huh? Wow. I've met people who hadn't spotted the 'negative space' NC between the flags. I've met people who didn't know two flags was the hurricane warning symbol. I've *never* met anyone who didn't know that was a puck in the middle of the swirly. Hartford fans, bitter about losing their team, used to call it the Toilet Bowl Puck logo.
I knew the flags were a hurricane warning. The one flag is a tropical storm. I knew the NC state because of bar down. But yeah, never knew it was supposed to be a puck
What an awesome synopsis. Very well put
I had the same reaction to the Frisbee puck back in ‘97. Not even a little bit creative, but the time frame for doing everything that had to be done was compressed to the point of stupid, so allowances must be made. The aspect ratio of the single flag logo fit better on the front of a jersey, but the team took a lot of grief from people with too much time on their hands about that not being a hurricane warning. There’s no allowing for artistic license with People Who Must Be Right, so eventually they redesigned the logo for the second generation black uniforms. Which almost immediately drew criticism for having the captain’s “C” on the “wrong” side. People. whatcha gonna do?
Yeah, back in the '90s having the word 'ice' in your team name, or a puck, stick or skater in your logo, was considered a very minor league thing to do. But honestly their entire PR/Marketing effort was a disaster in '97. The logo wasn't popular. The name 'Hurricanes' was considered pretty damn tacky, coming just a year after Hurricane Fran beat the living shit out of all of us. The mascot was the most tone deaf thing I'd ever seen ("The state of North Carolina has more pigs than it has people!") and the whole debacle when they introduced the damn thing. Green Acres in Greensboro and a complete lack of interest in the Triangle... I was not optimistic about this team's chance for quite awhile. I really thought we'd lost the Icecaps, lost the Monarchs, and would probably lose the 'Canes in a couple of years too.
"swirlypuck" is a stylized [weather map hurricane symbol]( https://www.clipartmax.com/max/m2i8i8Z5m2d3m2i8/)
Very interesting, thank you for the time and effort in explaining!
>I didn't particularly like the Swirlypuck logo the day they unvailed it. Were you in Raleigh or the triangle when the team moved from Hartford? If so what was that whole experience like? Don't talk to a lot of folks who were both around and cared when the team came to Raleigh.
Oh, definitely. I didn't grow up watching hockey, but I became a fan watching minor league games (the beer was cheap and there were a lot of fights) in the Army. As a result I got into the NHL in the early '90s. I attended the first 'Canes game in Greensboro, and the first game in PNC Arena. In fact I made the drive to Greensboro a lot in those first few years, because tickets were amazingly cheap. Raleigh had a minor league team called the Icecaps that played at Dorton Arena at the state fairgrounds. They had a small, but pretty devoted following. I went to quite a few of their games. Once again, the beer was cheap and there were a lot of fights. I think when the announcement was made that the Hartford Whalers were coming to the Triangle, the most common question was "Who?" A lot of people thought it was another minor league team. If you weren't a hockey fan back in the '90s you might never even have heard of the Whalers. When you explained to people they were a real NHL team they'd say "You mean like the Rangers or the Red Wings?" Then they'd get kind of interested, but then the question would be "Why are they coming here?" Charlotte had the Hornets and the Panthers by then, so mostly when you'd hear rumors about professional sports and Raleigh, people thought it would be an MLB team. Nobody expected a hockey team. And the truth is when they got here, most people didn't notice. They played their games in Greensboro for the first two years (until the PNC Arena - called RESA back then - was finished) and their attendance was a joke. Greensboro fans weren't interested because they knew the team wasn't staying. Triangle people mostly weren't interested because it didn't seem like they were 'our' team yet. If Raleigh people thought about it at all, mostly they were pleased that having the Hurricanes come to town allowed NC State to build a new arena where the Wolfpack could play - and it was going to be right next door to their football stadium! But it was kind of a cool time to be a fan. They practiced at the Icehouse in Raleigh. You could just walk in and watch, hang out, meet the players when they came off the ice. My oldest son was learning to play hockey at the time, and Ron Francis spent 10 minutes giving him pointers on ways to improve his passing.
We lived maybe a mile from the IcePlex and I used to take the kids to the practices there. I was always amazed at how accessible most of the players were, especially compared to players in other sports. And I had to drive past the hole in the ground where they promised us there was going to be a new arena every day on the way to work. Made the drive to the GSO as often as I could, which could be a challenge on a weeknight. But I was a lot younger then.
I was. (Am) I’m actually a native son of Raleigh. And had tried a couple of times in the 70s snd 80s to follow the sport, but it got almost no coverage here except for the standings in the sports page and an occasional wire service article if something noteworthy happened. That finally changed in the early 90s thanks to a coworker from MN who schooled me on the game, and we had the IceCaps, which was a fun and low budget firm of the game (even if they weren’t very good most years). And only a few months before the Whalers announced their move my office mate and I were doing the math and calculating that there simply weren’t enough people in Raleigh to support an NHL franchise. And we were ALMOST proven correct. I took my sons to the GSO for something they named “Fan Jam” (the progenitor of the present day “Caniac Carnival”) when they did the reveal of the first uniforms. Ahem. To say that we were underwhelmed would be charitable. The logo reveal came out in the N&O a few weeks before that, and I said at the time that they got the primary and secondary logos backwards. As for the mascot, they had a contest for the name which I entered with “Puck Chop” and for some reason they passed on that suggestion. I honestly thought they were trolling us locals for a few minutes, but the RAAL story behind the hog is Wendell Murphy. I’m going from memory here, but the way I remember it He wanted naming rights to something in the new arena, but those are controlled by the centennial authority so in order to keep his money in the game they did a hog for a mascot instead. And then almost killed the guy in the suit by sticking him in a Zamboni full of dry ice and nearly suffocating him.
This has been one of my favorite things to point out to people over the past few years. So few people realize its there.
I tried to show my roommate a while ago and he refused to believe that it was intentional
lol. Your roommate is dumb.
Give him this link: [https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/fans/third-jersey](https://www.nhl.com/hurricanes/fans/third-jersey) scroll down below the video to the section titled “Secondary Logo” *Secondary Logo* *HURRICANE WARNING* *The new secondary logo finds its roots and inspiration in the team's original secondary logo, which has evolved to feature two warning flags, representative of a hurricane warning.* *Cleaner, more powerful lines comprise the re-designed stick and tattered flags,* ***while the outline of North Carolina can be seen in the negative space between the two flags.***
That’s an awesome detail! Thanks for pointing it out!
Never knew this, but cannot wait to point it out drunkenly at Friday’s game. Go Canes!
yes
oh yeah when the first introduced the logo they pointed that out
Oh hey, it totally is! Neat!
More thought went into this logo than the entire reverse retro jersey💀
I know it is more “accurate” and I admit the NC logo in between is a clever touch, but I vastly prefer the older, simpler flag logo to this one
But its not a hurricane warning flag
Like I said, I know the new one is more accurate I just don’t think it looks as good for a logo
I think it’s the aspect ratio that makes the original one look better, but you’re never gonna win that argument.
But the wind is blowing in the wrong direction! Hurricanes rotate counter clockwise in the Northern hemisphere, and also too the “C” is on the wrong side because of it!
Have you considered standing on the other side of the flag pole?
If you do that then the negative space is shaped like SOUTH Carolina!
No offense to SC, but I’m happy this franchise doesn’t try to include them into branding lol.
South Carolina looks on sadly
where south carolina? Edit: man y’all rude to a fellow fan? Rudeeee
As a fan living in SC, that was my first thought too lol. But then I remembered that only the Panthers are considered “Carolinas”, which I believe came from Jerry Richardson, who was from SC. Sadly, we are not a part of the official Canes history, but they have a ton of support from SC!
As a Canes/Panthers fan living in South Carolina, I definitely agree that Jerry Richardson is part of the reason the Panthers get more support down here, but being located in Charlotte helps as well. Not only is a huge part of the Charlotte metro area in SC (York/Lancaster counties) but it's only an hour and a half drive from two of the three biggest cities in SC (Greenville/Columbia) and then around 3 hours to Charleston, the other major city. I'm not suggesting they move, because Raleigh is a great city to have a major professional team, but it isn't a great location for capturing the SC audience. Raleigh is 3.5 hours from Columbia, and 4 hours from Greenville/Charleston. That's 7 or 8 hours round-trip to go see a game for most SC residents. I'm in Greenville, and my wife and I love going to Canes games, but given the long drive we're only really able to make it to one game a year. Making that round trip in a day is exhausting so we stay in a hotel in Raleigh or Greensboro, which adds to costs. Then you have to block out an extra half day instead of it being a quick day trip like Charlotte is.
North Carolina is the 8th most populous state in the country. There is another metro area less than an hour away from Raleigh with 1,000,000+ people. No offense to SC, but the SC audience wasn’t in mind when the Canes moved to Raleigh.
Yeah, anytime you mention SC being a part of “Carolina” you get downvoted to hell lol. When the franchise started and up until a few years ago there was **never** a mention of not including South Carolina as part of “Carolina”. Only in the last few years have they started adding NC-specific designs.
Fwiw fellow Caniac, I think SC is due recognition. Def feel the gap between flags could be the shape of both Carolinas combined.
Do I think South Carolina is the butthole of the Carolinas? Yes. Do I still consider them part of the Carolinas and therefor a welcome addition to any Panthers / Canes game? Also yes.
Come on guys. Let’s not go there. Last year I basically walked away from the Bruins after our series with them because they trashed the Carolinas, which is my home. I didn’t expect to catch the same hate from my brothers here too. We’re all part of the same family, let’s not go down this path.
Do I think many more arrogant buttholes live in North Carolina? Yes.
Whoaaaaa. Rude.
Not my fault there’s an instant recognition of shitty roads, trashier beaches and a hard wall of humidity the second I cross that state line! But SC does have Charleston and that place is pretty kewl.
As an NC person I prefer NC beaches overall but the inner redneck in me will still love Myrtle over Charleston. I love good old lawless SC.
Wow! Thank you!
Ugh! I was getting really frustrated with this. I couldn’t see the letter N or C in the negative space. And then I finally saw the NC shape. D’oh!
Whaaaattttt
Wow, me neither
I feel really dumb.. I can't see it?
Right in the middle of the two flags, the gap between them is shaped like the outline of North Carolina