The Utah Grizzlies are a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL that have played in West Valley City, Utah, since 2005. The team’s visual identity centers on a grizzly bear, a name and mascot shared with an earlier Utah franchise that competed in the International Hockey League from 1995 to 2001. The current ECHL franchise is scheduled to relocate to Trenton, New Jersey, and be renamed the Trenton Ironhawks beginning in the 2026-27 season. [1]
Design and History
The Utah Grizzlies name first appeared in Utah in 1995, when an IHL franchise adopted the identity. In July 2000, that team unveiled a redesigned logo featuring a more aggressive, forward-facing bear breaking a hockey stick, with mountains added in the background. Team officials said the design process took about 20 months and that the mountains were a deliberate nod to Utah. “I don’t think you can have a Utah logo without the Utah mountains in it in some way, shape or form,” said Phil Mickey, director of community relations. [2] Team president Tim Mouser said the goal was an active, aggressive bear and a mark that could stand alone without the team name. [3]
When the ECHL franchise launched in Utah in 2005, it revived the Grizzlies name and bear imagery. The current primary logo depicts a stylized brown and black grizzly bear with a red tongue and white teeth, set in front of black and white mountains and holding two hockey sticks. The bottom of the design is an inverted triangle with three partial triangles in black, white, red and black. [4] A secondary version of the mark includes the words “Utah” in white and “Grizzlies” in black beneath the bear. [5]
The team’s official colors are green, black, copper and white. [6] The copper color traces to the 2000 redesign, when the IHL-era team added a copper shade that one official dubbed “Zion Red,” describing it as “our tip of the hat to Southern Utah” with “a nice earthy, natural feel.” [2]
Meaning and Symbolism
The bear breaking a hockey stick was introduced in the 2000 redesign as a deliberate shift from the previous logo, which showed a bear carrying a stick. Team officials said they wanted a more aggressive, active image. [3] The mountains in the background were intended to reflect the Wasatch Front, with media relations director Ian Furness saying the new logo “really means Utah. It reflects the look of the Wasatch Front.” [2]
Typography and Design
In the secondary version of the current logo, the wordmark appears in a slightly slanted typeface with “Utah” in white and “Grizzlies” in black. [5] The primary mark relies on the bear and mountain imagery without a wordmark, a feature team officials sought in the 2000 redesign when they said they wanted a mark that could stand alone. [3]
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