1958 Design Changes

After utilizing their stadium partner’s identity for the past two years, the New York Lions finally got an identity for themselves. After piggy-backing off of the Dutch Lions and getting a run to the championship, owner Peter Stuyvesant wanted to take the Lions in a different direction. Instead of using a dutch lion, he took inspiration from the New York Public Library’s lions, to be fitting for “a team of regal stature in the country’s largest city”. The new primary logo will be the stoic head of one of the lion statues, replacing the heraldic dutch lion that was used in a similar capacity. The Lions also swapped out the tuscan-inspired interlocking N-Y for one that is more blocky, though it will be relegated to secondary use. Their typeset also changes slightly to fit in line with the new secondary. Their uniforms, however, will remain the same, not wanting to change them with a miracle title run this past year.

Tri-Cities owner Bob Hester ran into the same issue that Cincinnati had a year prior. Hawks fans tuning in on television were sometimes unable to tell between the Hawks and other division rivals Detroit and St Louis, as all wore fairly similar home uniforms. Hester had read about the Lions’ new digs and got inspired. He designed a fairly simple T-C logo to put on the helmets to prevent any future confusion. The uniform set underwent a few minor changes, including adding a double stripe to the helmets and altering the home pant stripes back to how they were before the team had black pants.