WHL’s Portland Winterhawks Roll Out Special Logo for 50th Anniversary

The Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks are celebrating 50 years of junior “hawkey” in Oregon’s largest city with a special anniversary logo.

The logo was actually released back in January but has been used more prominently and with greater frequency in the buildup to the 2025-26 WHL regular season. It features a gold number 50 overtop of the crossed sticks and “WINTERHAWKS” banner from the team’s secondary logo, which was introduced as part of a larger visual overhaul in 2021. The team’s primary logo sits on top of the number, near the bottom of the logo.

Graphics courtesy Portland Winterhawks

The 2021 rebranding was spearheaded by graphic designer and friend of SportsLogos.net Brian Gundell.

According to the Winterhawks, the 50th anniversary logo will “inspire” a new centre ice design at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in downtown Portland, along with “a special line of jerseys for the new season.” The team will also unveil its list of the top 50 Winterhawks players of all time.

The franchise was founded in 1950 as the Edmonton Oil Kings, and it was a founding member of the Western Canada Junior Hockey League when it started in 1966. But when the Edmonton Oilers and the World Hockey Association came to town, the team relocated to Portland in 1976, becoming the first American team in what would later be known as the Western Hockey League.

The team used a slightly altered version of the Chicago Blackhawks’ logo from 1976 until the rebranding in 2021. They were also known as the “Winter Hawks” until 2009, when the space between the words announced its “retirement.”