Pittsburgh Penguins Entered League With Blue as Their Primary Color

Published on January 28th, 2025 3:15 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Penguins Adopt Black and Gold. Rebrand that took place in the 1980s. When the Pittsburgh Penguins entered the league in 1976, the main color scheme was dark blue, light blue and white.

For the 1968-69 season, the Penguins changed their uniform so that the team's logo, the penguin, was featured prominently on the front of the sweater. In 1972-73, there was yet another change, as the penguin was featured on top of a triangle, which is still used to this day.

The Penguins struggled mightily to gain support in the 1970s, as Pittsburgh was predominantly a football town.

The Steelers dominated the NFL in the 1970s, winning Super Bowls in 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1979.

The Pittsburgh Pirates also won two titles in the 1970s, with World Series wins in 1971 and 1979.

The ownership group of the Pittsburgh Penguins had an idea - why not change the team colors to match the Steelers and Pirates?

On January 30th, 1980, the Pittsburgh Penguins changed their colors to black and gold, to match the Steelers and Pirates. Pittsburgh was regarded as the "City of Champions" and the Penguins wanted to get in on the fun.

The Boston Bruins weren't fans of this change and they complained to the NHL. The Bruins said that black and gold belonged to them and that no other team in the NHL should be allowed to wear the colors.

The NHL disagreed and the Penguins debuted their new colors in early 1980.

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The Penguins continue to wear the black and gold to this day, though there is a healthy amount of white in their jerseys as well.

The fortunes of the team didn't change because they switched to the black and gold color scheme - in fact, the fortunes of the Penguins only started to turn when they drafted somebody by the name of Mario Lemieux.

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