Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL) - Logos and Uniforms

Logos and Uniforms

The Pirates were the first team in Pittsburgh to use the black & gold color scheme, basing their colors around the Flag of Pittsburgh's colors. Decades after the team folded, the colors have become the team colors of all three of Pittsburgh's major sports teams. However, during the team's existence, they would be the only team in the city with the colors, as the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team, like all other baseball teams at the time, had a more patriotic red, white, and blue color scheme and wouldn't adopt black & gold until 1948. Meanwhile the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers would not exist until 1933, three years after the team left town and two years after the franchise folded altogether.

The team not only borrowed the official city colors displayed on its seal, flag, fire hydrants, fire trucks and police cruisers, but literally "borrowed" their first logos from the city. In 1925, the Pirates founder and owner James Callahan was researching new uniforms and logos for the new team. He later called on his brother, a Pittsburgh Police officer, who provided him with old and surplus emblems, seals and patches for the Pirates to wear, all of them in the official city colors of "black and gold". Since Callahan's police officer brother provided used and surplus police wear to the team, the origin of the city's franchises use of "black and gold" originate, with the Pittsburgh Police Deapartment.

The Pirates would later have a connection with Pittsburgh's next NHL franchise; the Pittsburgh Penguins. In January 1980, the Boston Bruins protested to the NHL over the Penguins proposed change in team colors, from blue and white to black and gold. The Penguins used the Pirates as an example of a NHL team, other than the Bruins, that used the black & gold color scheme. The NHL allowed the Penguins to change their colors as a result of the Pirates using these colors.

The Pirates wore bright yellow wool jerseys with black trim stripes with a "P" on the front of their jerseys during the 1925–1926 season. The team used the Pittsburgh's city crest emblems from older police jackets on the uniform sleeves. The first year jerseys appear to have been inherited from the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets old jerseys. The Pirates featured new jerseys in 1928–29 that were gold with black striping. The word "Pirates" written in arched, blocked lettering. The city crest on the sleeves was replaced with a "P".

In 1929–30 the Pirates switched to black and orange uniforms for their fifth and final season. The wool jerseys featured a chain-knit logo of a pirate face with an eye patch and hat with skull and cross bones. The jersey featured double striping on the sleeves and a diagonal background behind the crest. The orange and black remained when the Pirates moved across the state to become the Quakers, Philadelphia's first NHL team, adopting script lettering like the original Pirates' uniforms. When the Philadelphia Flyers joined the NHL in 1967, they adopted the orange and black colors first worn by the Pirates and Quakers.

• 1928–1929 Logo

• 1929–1930 Logo

• 1925–1927 Uniform

• 1928–1929 Uniform

• 1929–1930 Orange Uniform