So at a Christmas gathering the other day, my uncle was asking the crowd some Packers trivia questions. Eventually he got around to the “what does the letter ‘G’ on the helmets stand for” question, prompting the “greatness” debate. Personally I don’t think it does stand for “greatness”, I think that’s been pretty well debunked.
But that did prompt a question. As far as we could figure out, Green Bay is the only sports market in North America where the city, state, or region is represented by a two-word-or-more name, but the official teamwear (helmets, ballcaps, jersey logos, etc.) is represented by only one initial. New York? You never see just an ‘N’; you always see an interlocked ‘NY’. Los Angeles? No ‘L’; it’s always a stylized ‘LA’. Notre Dame? No ‘N’ there, either; we’re all familiar with the famed ‘ND’. Tampa Bay (even though there is no such city as Tampa Bay) doesn’t just use a ‘T’; the Rays have always used ‘TB’ on their caps and patches IIRC.
So are there any examples like Green Bay where the city/state/school/region is named by more than one word but the unis or game gear display just one initial? I’m sure there are but for the life of me I can’t think of any. Game-worn equipment only please, otherwise we might spend a lifetime discussing inch-by-inch iron-ons someone wore for one week on their practice warmups.
I can’t think of any cut and dry examples. The Washington (DC) Natinals use a script W, and I think they’ve got an alternate logo with an interlocked DC. I don’t think I’d count that, though. I’m just tossing it in the ring for discussion.
Does Ohio State count for its logo? They tend to use the block O, but with Ohio State written across it. That doesn’t get much, if any, play on the uniforms.
South Carolina just uses the “C” with a gamecock in the middle for their football helmets. Baseball does have an interlocking “SC” though. I’ve always found it interesting that both North and South Carolina try so hard to be accepted as just “Carolina”.
In the opposite direction, for years the Minnesota Twins had two letters on their insignia, even though their region and name had only one word. The “TC” stands for “Twin Cities” an “M” for “Minneapolis” or “Minnesota” would have driven away fans from St. Paul.
The St. Louis Cardinals has had three letters in their logo for years.
I think my favourite weird-letters example would be the Montreal Canadiens, whose logo bears a C and an H.
The C stands for Canadiens, of course. Everyone THINKS the H stands for “Habitants.” It doesn’t. It stands for “Hockey.” How many other teams have a logo with a letter standing just for the name of the sport?
You’re going to have to come up with a more solid site than just your conjecture. The “Block S” has been been for years the most common logo of MSU athletics. It’s in the center of the football field. MSU is often referred to in Michigan as just “State”.
Not quite the same thing, but the Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins helmet logos include pictures *of *helmets. It’s all recursive and meta and stuff, ya know.
