Cowboy history collided with surf vibes over the weekend for the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen.
The Icemen transformed into the Jacksonville Cowabungas for their home game against the Orlando Solar Bears on Friday, January 9. The alternate identity celebrated both the city’s roots and its current relaxed beach culture.
The crest that featured on the front of the Cowabungas’ jerseys for the game features a bull sporting sunglasses and shorts on a surfboard, making a shaka gesture with his right hand. An outline of the state of Florida can be seen in the negative space created by his tail.
The Icemen also created a logo with the cow popping out of a navy blue roundel and a wordmark with “Cowabungas” in a script font over a surfboard. These logos are featured on the shoulders of the jerseys.
The Cowabungas’ jerseys were navy blue with teal collars and orange, teal and white striping. On the sleeves and socks, the teal lower panels had two white pinstripes near the top, and two teal pinstripes ran above an orange stripe. Similar stripes ran around the waist, minus the white pinstripes and with more separation between the orange and teal.
Numbers on the back and sleeves were set in a thick script font; sleeve numbers were orange with white outlines, while the back numbers were white (with some grey at the bottom) with orange outlines. Names were navy blue on a contrasting orange panel.
Wearing the special jerseys against Orlando was an interesting choice, as the Solar Bears also use teal and orange in their colour palette. And their shade of purple is not far off the navy blue base of the Cowabungas’ sweaters.
According to the Florida Times-Union, before Jacksonville was founded in 1822, local Indigenous people developed an area of the St. Johns River near where the city is now as a place for cattle to cross. They called it Wacca Pilatka (“where the cows cross”), but English-speaking settlers simply called it “Cow Ford.”
The Cowabungas’ jerseys are just one of several special jerseys the Icemen are sporting throughout January. Earlier in the month, they wore special sweaters celebrating their affiliation with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres that featured “JAX” inside a jumping buffalo as the crest. And on January 23 and 24, they’ll throw it back to the 1990s with Jacksonville Lizard Kings jerseys.
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