The History of the Bird

Last week the Orioles announced a new uniform for the 2012 season. The Orioles will wear orange jerseys on home Saturdays to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the opening of Camden Yards. In other news, however, the O’s logo will now be the cartoon bird, similar to their logo from the 1970’s. The changed logo got us thinking here at Warehouse Worthy: what other logos have the Orioles had since their first season in Baltimore in 1954?

The inaugural logo (pictured left) used by the Baltimore Orioles, used from 1954-1962.

In 1963, the Orioles replaced the Bird was the letter “B” (pictured left), however ’63 was the only year the “B” was used.

The O’s switched back to the bird in 1964 and used it for one more year in 1965. This was also known as “The Chirping Bird” (pictured above).

After 1965 The O’s switched to the “Cartoon Bird” (pictured left) and it was used as their logo until 1989. It is also the longest used logo to dates for the Orioles.

The Orioles then switched to the “Ornithologically Correct Bird” (pictured left) after 1989 and kept it until 1997. This logo is the last logo that was used during a winning season. After 1997 the Orioles used the “lifelike Bird” from 1998 until 2008. In 2008, the Orioles used the “Traditional Bird”.

This brings us to the new “Cartoon Bird”, which is a modernized version of the logo used from ’66-’89. Hopefully this new logo brings more success to the Orioles in 2012 and beyond!