Friday, August 25, 2006

Formerly know as Mighty


The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim are no longer Mighty. They are now simply the Anaheim Ducks. The club announced the name change January 26, 2006 and formally changed its name on June 22nd, 2006.
When founded in 1993, the Mighty Ducks were owned by The Walt Disney Company, and played their inaugural season in 1993-94. The team's original name was chosen from the Disney movie The Mighty Ducks, about a group of misfit teens who turn their losing youth hockey team into a winner. Disney subsequently made an animated series called The Mighty Ducks, featuring a fictional Mighty Ducks of Anaheim team that consists of anthropomorphized ducks.
In 2005, Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli of Irvine, California and his wife, Susan, bought the Ducks from the Walt Disney Company for a reported $75 million (USD). The Samuelis have pledged to keep the team in Anaheim.
On January 26, 2006 the owners announced, effective with the 2006-07 season, that the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim would change their name to the Anaheim Ducks. This included a logo and team color changes which were unveiled at a special ceremony on June 22nd. Many Ducks fans successfully petitioned the Samuelis to keep Wildwing as the current mascot because of the team's recent success and as a link to the past.
Along with the team's new name, its home ice, Arrowhead Pond, will also be renamed to Honda Center effective October as Arrowhead Water's naming rights have expired.
Printed above is the cover of the 93/94 Mighty Ducks inaugural Season Catalog displaying what I think is one of the best hockey logos in the NHL. Printed below is the ad that the Ducks ran in the Hockey News to announce the new name and logo. Pretty lame logo if you ask me. In the past, the Ducks have always been one of the biggest sellers of jerseys and other merchandise for the NHL. I wonder how well this new logo will do sales wise? Luckily I already own a MIGHTY Ducks jersey!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've just received at home one of the purple jerseys of this team from 1994 and totally new with my size!!! ^^ I'm in love with that hehehe

Great memories. I grow up with that and in my country ice hockey didn't "exist" until this film :)

Regards