The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball franchise based in Cincinnati, Ohio, competing in the National League Central division. The club traces its heritage to the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, widely recognized as baseball’s first openly professional team, and has competed in the National League since 1890. The team’s visual identity has centered on a “wishbone C” mark for over a century, evolving through several distinct eras.
Design and History
The Reds’ identity has been built around variations of the wishbone “C” since the earliest years of the twentieth century. The original 1869 Red Stockings wore jerseys featuring a large red Old English “C” on the front, a design literally named for the team’s visual presentation. The franchise’s official logo history traces this evolution from the “Gothic C” of the 1869 Red Stockings through the introduction of Mr. Redlegs in the 1950s to the modern “Wishbone C.” [1] [2]
In 1953, the team formally became the “Redlegs,” a renaming that acknowledged the negative political connotations of “Reds” during the escalating Cold War. Along with the name change, the club debuted a completely new symbol: a cartoon character that eventually became known as Mr. Redlegs. The character is credited to longtime Cincinnati Enquirer sports cartoonist Harold Russell (1888-1966), whose career with the paper began in 1914. Mr. Redlegs was unveiled prior to the 1953 campaign and was heavily leveraged that summer as Cincinnati hosted MLB’s All-Star Game. The club dropped the “Redlegs” designation in 1959. [1]
A modernized version of Mr. Redlegs was introduced in 1967, created by Jerry Burnett, an artist at Nolan, Keelor and Stites, a Cincinnati advertising agency. This “running man” logo became associated with the Big Red Machine dynasty of the 1970s and the 1990 World Series championship club. Dick Wagner, the team’s business manager at the time of the change and later club president, explained the logo evolution in a 1974 Cincinnati Enquirer article: “We were trying to develop a more up to date theme” as part of the franchise’s efforts to “improve our general presentation to the public.” [1]
The current primary logo was adopted in 1999. It shows a stylized white wishbone “C,” fimbriated black and red, with the word “REDS” in white capital letters within the “C.” That year marked the first time in club history that black became a primary element of the Reds’ uniform color scheme, particularly on road uniforms. The home caps returned to an all-red design with a white wishbone “C,” lightly outlined in black. [3] [4]
For the franchise’s 150th anniversary in 2019, the Reds unveiled a commemorative logo featuring the original “Red Stockings” name, the Palace of the Fans ballpark as a backdrop, and the Gothic wishbone “C” used by that 1869 team. The anniversary logo was featured throughout Reds programming, activities and giveaways all season long. [5] [6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The wishbone “C” has been the Reds’ most persistent visual element, appearing in various forms since the early 1900s. The 1869 Red Stockings were literally named for their visual presentation, wearing jerseys with a large red Old English “C” on the front. The team’s official logo history describes the modern mark as the “iconic Wishbone C of today,” a direct descendant of that original letterform. [1] [2]
The 150th anniversary logo drew directly on this heritage, using the original “Red Stockings” name and the Gothic wishbone “C” from that team to commemorate the franchise’s founding in 1869. [5]
Typography and Design
The Reds’ wordmark has appeared in white capital letters within the wishbone “C” since the current logo was adopted in 1999. The 1869 team used a Gothic or Old English style “C,” while the modern mark uses a stylized white “C” with the word “REDS” set inside it. [3] [2]
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