1957 Design Changes

After paying tribute to his father for one more season by wearing the uniforms most associated with the team, Detroit Knights owner Florian Riddle decided that a new era was needed for Detroit football.  Their main logo got rid of the interlocking swords in favor of the shield alone. Riddle had wanted the logo to be representative of Detroit as a whole, integrating the design of the city’s flag into the four quarters of the shield with a D in the center. There were a few alterations from flag to logo, mainly reducing the number of Normal lions and fleurs-de-lis to better fit within the shield. However, they did increase the number of stars by 1 to 14 to represent the total number of championships they had won across all the leagues they played in. Their shades of red and blue were altered slightly, though that could be attributed to the new supplier for their uniforms. 

 

Controversially, the team deviated from their shoulder yoke for the first time in their history. “[The yoke] was a bit outdated so to say,” said Riddle on its removal. “Its legacy lies with my father, but now we’re trying to make a new legacy in today’s game.” The Knights did bring something new, adding a unique striping design to their once plain red helmets, making the middle blue stripe taper off to look like a sword. Riddle had wanted to keep some of the same style with the now-removed shoulder yoke, which resulted in the home uniform lacking any striping while the away gets a blue-white-red triple stripe on the sleeves. The socks now have stripes, getting a similar style to the away uniform striping.

The Rivermen also made some minor adjustments to their uniforms. Owner Dennis Delaney got complaints from fans who were watching the Rivermen play the Stallions on TV that they weren’t able to tell which team was which. Even though Delaney thought there was a clear enough difference, he made changes to the Rivermen to make sure they knew they were rooting for the right team. As a result of changing uniform manufacturers, their blue moved towards navy, as well as adding numbers to their helmets and their steamboat steering wheel to the shoulders.


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