The History of The Cincinnati Reds Logo

Knowing what you want and sticking with it helps in making decisions easy. Such is the case for the Cincinnati Reds who have wanted the letter “C” as their logo since the first time they set out to create one. Although it has undergone a few renditions, they have maintained the red color throughout. Let’s take a look at the changes the logo has gone through since the 19th century.

Cincinnati Red Stockings

The history of the Cincinnati Reds Logo dates back to 1880 although the club was founded in 1882 and went by the name the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The logo they used was just the letter “C” in one of the old ways of writing the letter in English. The “C” was in red, and they used this logo until 1889. In 1900, the Cincinnati retained the letter “C” but changed its style, so that it was in block and red. That logo did not stay for long before they changed again after one year. So in 1901, they used a rounded “C” that was still red.

Bruce Double Pica style variations

• In 1905, they changed from a block “C” to a font that looked similar to Bruce Double Pica. Further, the letter became much thinner and the red color was not as bright as in the previous logos.
• One year later, in 1906, they changed the letter “C” to a variation of the Bruce Double Pica font but still maintained the red color. They used this logo for two years.
• In 1908, another variation of the Bruce Double Pica font saw them change their logo again. Although they retained the letter “C” and red color.
• 1912 saw the end of using the Bruce Double Pica font variations in their logo when they changed the one they were using. The letter “C” and red color were the only constants.

In comes the wishbone style

After doing away with the Bruce Double Pica style, they went for the wishbone instead in 1913 which has become the basis for their current logo. The wishbone “C” had the wordmark “REDS” in it, and both the letter and wordmark were in red. A year later in 1914, they varied the version of the wishbone “C.” The letter became much thicker, and the font of the wordmark “REDS” became smaller, but was still inside “C.” In 1915, the same wishbone style remained in the letter “C,” but this time it was more elongated horizontally. The wordmark “REDS” changed the style, but the red color in both the wordmark and letter remained.

Introducing new colors

In 1920, the logo went from being all red to having a black trim around the red wishbone “C” which also became thicker and more elongated to be almost enclosing the wordmark “REDS,” that remained to be red. In 1939, the Cincinnati Reds introduced another color to their logo, white. This time the wishbone “C” had white trim and black border. The word “REDS,” which was in red and much thicker but smaller, stayed inside “C.”

Total change

For the first time, the letter “C” was no longer in use. Instead in 1953, when they renamed their team to Cincinnati Redlegs since “Reds” depicted a connection to communism, they brought in something different. They had a baseball player, whose head was baseball, carrying a bat and running to the left. The player had a black mustache and on his jersey were the words “Red Stockings.” In 1959, the team changed their name again to be the Cincinnati Reds, but they did not change the logo of the running baseball player. It continued to be their logo until 1968 when they changed the logo again.

The baseball player no longer had a mustache, and this time he was running to the right. Also, the baseball cap was red, and his jersey number was “27”. The cartoon image came to be known as Mr. Reds, and no Reds player got to have number 27 on his uniform; it was set aside for Mr. Reds from 1968 to 1973. Still on the logo was the wishbone “C” in the background, in red and with the wordmark “CINCINNATI REDS” in white.

No more Mr. Reds

In 1993, they got rid of the carton baseball player and went back to the traditional letter “C.” However, for the first time, the “C” was white with a red outline. The wordmark “REDS” was also white for once but set against a red background inside “C.” In 1999, the logo did not change much from the previous year’s one. The only change was the black outline added to the wishbone “C” and “REDS” wordmark that gave the logo a 3-D look.

Present logo

The logo they changed to in 2013 has been in use till today. It does not look different from the former one except for the change in color red which went a bit darker.