The Original Seattle Seahawks Logo: Controversy in the 70s and a Surprising Discovery Decades Later

The Seattle Seahawks will once again wear their much-loved throwback uniforms tonight when they take on the San Francisco 49ers, but the logo wasn’t without its controversy when it was first unveiled nearly fifty years ago.

Officially presented to the world on June 17, 1975, the Seahawks original logo and name were released over a year before their 1976 inaugural season in the National Football League. The expansion club held a public naming contest that resulted in over 20,000 submissions and 1,741 unique names. The winning choice, “Seahawks,” was chosen after weeks of deliberation despite never appearing on the team’s original shortlist.

General Manager John Thompson described the name as one that reflected “aggressiveness,” embodying the “soaring Northwest heritage,” and noted that it fit the region’s landscape. The name had historical precedence, having been used by several local teams, including a minor league hockey team and area high schools. Hazel Cooke of Milton, Washington, submitted the winning name and was awarded two season tickets to the Seahawks’ first season.

The original Seahawks logo featured a blue and green profile of a stylized bird head—at the time, said to be modelled after the osprey, a fish-eating hawk common to the Northwest. The design drew inspiration from Native American art, specifically from the Northwest Coast, intending to ground the new team in local cultural heritage. The colours chosen for the logo and uniforms—blue, green, and silver—were meant to symbolize the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, with blue representing the Puget Sound, green symbolizing the forests, and silver evoking the snow-covered mountains.

Despite the intended homage, the logo soon became the center of controversy. Six weeks after it was first revealed, the King County Arts Commission sent a letter to the Seahawks criticizing the design for not adhering closely enough to traditional Native American art principles. Commission chairman Ray Meuse argued that the design was “degrading to Native Americans” and lacked sensitivity to the art forms indigenous to the region. He suggested the logo be redesigned to better align with the cultural traditions of the Northwest Coast peoples.

Attached to Meuse’s letter was a redesigned version of the Seahawks logo that he felt more accurately represented the art style. Created by Marvin Oliver, a Seattle-based Quinault and Isleta-Pueblo artist, this version maintained the same osprey profile but introduced more angular and intricate linework typical of traditional formline techniques, which he believed would have better respected the art traditions of the Northwest.

Artist Marvin Oliver proposed this ultimately rejected revision to better respect the Native art traditions of the Northwest

In response to these complaints, Thompson sought validation for the design by consulting experts. He found support from an unnamed Native art authority who referenced a ceremonial mask documented in the book Art of the Northwest Coast Indians. Thompson claimed that NFL Properties used this mask as the basis for the Seahawks’ emblem. Thompson also pointed out that none of this debate mattered because it was far too late to change the logo, as it was already widely distributed on more than 300 licensed products and was in use by 72 national licensees.

The debate over the Seahawks’ original logo disappeared after this, and it was even replaced with a more modernized and re-coloured version in 2002. However, the origins of this logo were revisited decades later with a discovery. In 2014, curators at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum identified the specific Kwakwaka’wakw transformation mask as the likely inspiration for the original Seahawks logo that Thompson had been referring to. This mask, housed in the University of Maine’s Hudson Museum since 1986, had a striking resemblance to the logo, particularly in the shape of the bird’s head, beak, and eyes.

The mask which inspired the design of the original Seattle Seahawks logo

According to Burke Museum Curator Emeritus Bill Holm, the mask—likely created by the Kwakwaka’wakw people of Vancouver Island—was featured in Robert Bruce Inverarity’s 1950 book, Art of the Northwest Coast Indians, the same book Thompson had earlier cited as a key resource used by the NFL’s design team when creating the Seahawks logo in 1975. When opened, the mask reveals a human face, but when closed, it depicts a bird, which strongly resembles the Seahawks’ original logo. The mask had always been displayed in the open position which likely resulted in the delay in being discovered.

The mask went on display at the Burke Museum on November 18, 2014, where it drew renewed attention to the original design’s cultural origins and the longstanding relationship between sports, art, and indigenous heritage in the Pacific Northwest. Its presence in Seattle was quickly identified as a symbol of good luck as the Seahawks promptly turned a 6-4 start into an eight-game winning streak, which included winning the NFC Championship. The good times eventually ended, of course, with a loss at Super Bowl XLIX at the hands of the New England Patriots on February 1, 2015.

***The Seahawks logo mask, in its open position, as it had been displayed for decades***

When the NFL allowed teams to wear alternate coloured helmets, the Seahawks quickly returned this original logo and uniform for a couple of games per season. It made its on-field return on October 29, 2023, nearly fifty years after its design, in a 24-20 victory over the Cleveland Browns. It’ll make its fourth appearance since its rebirth tonight, October 10, 2024, against the San Francisco 49ers.