A Look At The Los Angeles Rams’ Logo History

After months of speculation, misdirection and leaks, the Los Angeles Rams are finally set to unveil their new logo and color scheme this afternoon. So with that, we’ve decided to take a look back at the Rams’ logo history, which dates back to when the franchise was founded in Cleveland in 1937.

The Rams — which general manager Damon Wetzel named after Fordham, his favorite college team — featured a red and black color scheme, but changed to varying shades of blue and gold after just one season. The team did not use a logo until 1941, though, when they introduced a right-facing ram head with realistic features and blue horns.

That logo lasted just two seasons before the franchise was suspended due to World War II. And when the Rams returned to play in 1944, they introduced a new stylized ram head logo with blue shading on the face and white horns.

Though the Rams won the NFL Championship in 1945, they moved to Los Angeles the following year. They kept their logo in place through the relocation until it was replaced in 1951 with another ram head logo with realistic facial features and gold horns. The team won its second NFL title that season, while the change likely occurred to match the team’s iconic helmets, which first included hand-painted horns in 1948.

That logo lasted 19 seasons before it was slightly modified in 1970, when the Rams changed the color of the horns from gold to white and flipped direction of the logo. Once again, this change likely took place because the team had been wearing white horns on its helmets for the six previous seasons.

The horns became such a prominent part of the Rams’ uniform that the team adopted a side view of the helmet as its primary logo in 1983, though they ditched the two-bar facemask for a modernized design in 1989 — which, coincidentally, is the same shape still used today by the Cleveland Browns.

The Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995 and introduced a new logo centered around Gateway Arch National Park, then known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. While that logo will forever be associated with “The Greatest Show on Turf” and the Rams’ lone Super Bowl win (XXXIV), the franchise went back to its roots with a modernized ram head logo in 2000.

The team also switched from royal blue and gold to a navy blue and champagne gold, which would remain throughout the franchises’ St. Louis tenure.

The Rams returned to Los Angeles in 2016, maintaining their look in their first season back. But the following year, they dropped gold from their logo and — rather than introduce a new uniform — went with a blend of eras, wearing throwback uniforms at home and combining their standard white jerseys with white horns on their helmets on the road.

This was done mainly because of the NFL’s five-year rule, which would not have allowed the Rams to rebrand this offseason (which coincides with the opening of SoFi Stadium) had they done so upon their move back to Los Angeles. And as a result, the 2019 Rams became the first team to wear a different helmet design between the conference championship game and Super Bowl.

Photos via the Los Angeles Rams.