Argos Bring Back the Boat, Introduce New Logo for 2021

The NHL wasn’t the only one to go retro on Monday.

The Toronto Argonauts announced they would be returning their classic “Boat” logo as their full-time primary logo starting immediately. The Argos have used a boat as the main focus of their team’s logos for most of their franchise’s extremely long history — seriously, the 2021 season will be the club’s 139th.

Originally appearing as an actual boat, the logo was updated to depict the boat as a football in the 1950s with a sail above reading the team’s name and a flag that said: “PULL TOGETHER”. In the 1970s this logo was simplified considerably, the team’s name was changed to just an “A” and the words of encouragement were eliminated. The team went in another direction as they moved into SkyDome in 1989, focusing instead on an “A” as the team’s main logo, shown within various different elements in the 30+ years since.

This new boat logo is almost identical to the simplified version that was used up until 1988, it has been updated to be shown in the team’s proper double blue colour scheme of Cambridge Blue and Oxford Blue.

“We are so excited to bring back a logo that is beloved by so many Toronto Argonauts fans,” said Argos General Manager Michael “Pinball” Clemons in the press release. “This contemporary redesign of one of our most iconic emblems reinforces the great tradition of the Argonauts while continuously steering towards the horizon and our future. The boat is back, and our passion lives on!”

Fans of the “A” in the shield don’t need to worry, at least not yet, the now-former primary logo will stick around as an alternate logo for the time being.

LINK: Toronto Argonauts complete logo history

UPDATE: The Argos have Tweeted out a photo of their new helmet, here it is: