Yankees Primary Logo

[kevinmets]

The current Yankees primary logo is incorrectly listed on this site as 1947-present. The logo underwent a change, somewhere in the 70s or 80s.

Old Logo, New Logo

Does anyone know the exact year the updated logo debuted?

[Gothamite]

That old logo is one I made; it's not terribly accurate. Got to finish it one of these days.

I want to say that the modern one was introduced in 76, but can't back that up. I know they continued to use the old one sporadically for years after the tweaked version was unveiled.

[xTr1pleXx]

The new one was phased in during the late 70's. As Gothamite said, I think its first appearance was in 1976 when the renovated Stadium opened. But there were many times where the old top hat logo was used in the late 70's. Wonder if anyone could pinpoint when the old logo finally disappeared for good.

A related question: does anyone know the exact year that the Yankees cleaned up the chest-logo interlocking NY used from 1936 to the version used today? I have it pinpointed to 1944, 1945, or 1946 based on team photos.

1943 Yankees, with the "old" interlocking NY:

Joe DiMaggio on Sport Magazine in September 1946, with the current interlocking NY:

This picture is listed as being from August 1944, which would be evidence that the switch was either in 1945 or 1946:

This is another wartime photo, based on the patch, but I can't pinpoint the year any further than that:

The 1944, 1945, and 1946 Yankees all took their official team photos in the road uniform.

EDIT: Since the Sport Magazine photo doesn't give a clear shot of the chest logo, here's another DiMaggio photo from 1946 that's been colorized, clearly showing the modern chest logo:

BTW, that colorzied photo comes from this thread on another forum, which is a tremendous if you want to check out colorzied photos of old baseball uniforms: My link. I think they're all done by the same guy.

[TruColor]

Here's the version that was included in the 1952 Cooperstown Collection:

Not sure of the accuracy, but there it is.

[xTr1pleXx]

Here's the version that was included in the 1952 Cooperstown Collection:

Not sure of the accuracy, but there it is.

I doubt the accuracy of that. It's just the present logo recolored.

[McCall]

Here's the version that was included in the 1952 Cooperstown Collection:

Not sure of the accuracy, but there it is.

I doubt the accuracy of that. It's just the present logo recolored.

Or the current one was a recolored version of the old one at some point.

[Gothamite]

Look at the stars - on the 1970s version, the hatband has full stars, while the 1940s original they were partly obscured by the brim.

Here's a variant with shorter bat (they needed the on-deck circle logo to be a circle) that shows off the original hatband:

There is a lot of variation in the early logos, since many were hand-drawn, but the truncated stars were a constant and the full stars are the first hint that the "offical" Cooperstown Collection is a modern creation, made by recoloring the current logo.

[RETROJR79]

I see what you mean just like when the Dodgers changed their logo last year and no one noticed.

[njmeadowlanders]

It had to have been in use from before they opened a renovated Yankee Stadium, as this 1975 scorecard from their time at Shea Stadium shows:

[xTr1pleXx]

It had to have been in use from before they opened a renovated Yankee Stadium, as this 1975 scorecard from their time at Shea Stadium shows:

Woah, good find. That's the earliest I've ever seen that logo appear.

Meanwhile, the 1982 yearbook has the OLD logo:

(And yes, the stars are cut off by the brim there too.)

[xTr1pleXx]

Here's a 1979 yearbook from a Yankees minor league affiliate, the West Haven Yankees (boy, growing up near West Haven, I wish they still existed when I was a kid), showing what's basically the current top hat logo, though the stars are ever-so-slightly cut off by the brim):

Here's the 1983 Yankees yearbook, with the old logo... recolored in navy blue! Which, BTW, is exactly how I think they should render the present top hat logo: "Yankees" and the bat in blue, the stitches of the ball and stripes on the top hat in red.

And on the 1985 Yearbook, the "Official Yankees Publication" logo still used today made its first appearance, as far as I can tell, and that has the modern top hat logo on it:

[xTr1pleXx]

Just found a calendar and a bumper sticker from 1988, when the Yankees apparently had a "Pride and Power" slogan:

Here's a "Pride and Power" bumper sticker with the modern top hat logo:

While here's a "Pride and Power" calendar with a very old rendering of the top hat logo:

That said, that calendar might have used a purposefully "retro" logo. "Retro" really was not in at that time, but that looks like a rendering straight out of the 1940's. It most certainly wasn't the Yankees official logo at the time.

[Gehrig27]

The top hat logo has always jumped around in terms of style; the current one is for the most part a product of the 70's, though before and after that it would change at random.

As far as the chest logo goes, the post-Ruth yankees used the same NY in 1936,37,39,40, and 1943. The other 40's style was used in 1938,41,42,44,and 45. I've been doing research for a Yankee uniform database for several months now and have pinpointed the change to the modern NY as occuring in 1946. However, in September and the World Series of 1953, the yankees switched to an older style NY previously seen on players' jackets in the 30's and 40's. This uniform also reverted back to the Red Sox-style numbers. Its almost as if the Yankees came up with a fauxback in the early 50's. This uniform has also thrown my research through a little bit of a loop because while the whole team appears to wear them late in 1953, other team pictures from 1952 and 1954 show phil Rizzutto and other random players wearing the fauxback NY, while the rest of the team wears the modern style .

[xTr1pleXx]

The top hat logo has always jumped around in terms of style; the current one is for the most part a product of the 70's, though before and after that it would change at random.

As far as the chest logo goes, the post-Ruth yankees used the same NY in 1936,37,39,40, and 1943. The other 40's style was used in 1938,41,42,44,and 45. I've been doing research for a Yankee uniform database for several months now and have pinpointed the change to the modern NY as occuring in 1946. However, in September and the World Series of 1953, the yankees switched to an older style NY previously seen on players' jackets in the 30's and 40's. This uniform also reverted back to the Red Sox-style numbers. Its almost as if the Yankees came up with a fauxback in the early 50's. This uniform has also thrown my research through a little bit of a loop because while the whole team appears to wear them late in 1953, other team pictures from 1952 and 1954 show phil Rizzutto and other random players wearing the fauxback NY, while the rest of the team wears the modern style .

Thanks for the info. I noticed there seemed to be two different "NY" styles in the early 40's, but figured it was just inconsistency in how the uniforms were made. Interesting to know they switched between styles multiple times, before modernizing it to today's NY.

Also, I never knew that about the 1953 World Series. I knew I had seen a handful of photos from the 1950's with the old-style NY, and was always very confused about them. Turns out the Yanks were just unintentionally way ahead of the curve on wearing throwbacks! Never thought reverting to an old jersey for a month happened in the 50's, so that's really interesting information.

Also, that 1946 set is a thing of beauty. Obviously the Yanks will never return to those numbers (nor should they, given how they're so identified with the Red Sox nowadays), but that was a tremendous looking set. A little jarring to see the Ruth-style numbers couple with the modern interlocking NY, though.

[Gehrig27]

One of the main things that got me interested in starting a Yankee uniform project (besides being a Yankee fan), was to dispell the assumption by many people that the Yankees have "never changed" their uniforms or have been exactly the same since 1936. Sure, the style hasn't changed in a very long time, but there are so many little tweeks and changes throughout the years. The cap logos have changed style dozens of times, the numbers have changed several times, the interlocking NY has changed many times (even the "modern" one has changed since its first appearance), and just take a look at the many different changes in "W's", "R's", and "K's" in the NEW YORK script from the 1910's to today. Granted, there haven't been many drastic changes, but I think people will be surprised at how often changes were made to the Yankees set over time.

I just don't know how I would want to display all my research online. I originally thought a setup like the gridiron uniform database, but I have no clue how to start or run a website. I guess at the least I could just start a thread here and post all the uniforms year by year (like the 1946 set above).

[TruColor]

I see what you mean just like when the Dodgers changed their logo last year and no one noticed.

And like the Dallas Cowboys have ever-so-slightly cleaned up their star mark (for 2012), and no one will notice.

[The_Admiral]

Just dropped a stealth bomb on us.

[STL FANATIC]

Just dropped a stealth bomb on us.

I'm gonna steal some of CW's thunder. Don't hold it against me, Donovan!

Basically, notice the slight imperfection in this shape...

That's not there any more. They've... straightened out... some of their issues.

[njmeadowlanders]

^ I'm sorry I just don't see where there's an imperfection. Everything looks straight as is to me.

[RETROJR79]

I see what you mean just like when the Dodgers changed their logo last year and no one noticed.

And like the Dallas Cowboys have ever-so-slightly cleaned up their star mark (for 2012), and no one will notice.

I see what you mean colore