The Colours Of The North (Stars)

Man, that's a sharp logo. I'm still in the camp that believes that the North Stars leaving Minnesota was a bad decision, but people make mistakes all the time so I'm not judging Norm Green's boneheaded decision to move the team. One of the things he did before the move was to retire the North Stars logo, and that alone should put him on hockey's list of people needing to have their heads checked. In any case, I've always wondered how the North Stars got their unique colour scheme. The Vikings, Twins and Gophers don't use the iconic green-and-gold, so whose idea was it to have the North Stars stand out in their uniforms?

Luckily, thanks to one of the best Twitter accounts around, we have an answer. I'm a huge fan of all the historic stuff that Vintage Minnesota Hockey puts out, and you should be following them at @VintageMNHockey if you're not. This was the tweet they put out today without the media attached.

Fun article about Minnesota North Stars, and how team colors were picked explained by Walter Bush Jr. pic.twitter.com/ygkFnzSmNr

— Vintage MN Hockey (@VintageMNHockey) August 6, 2018

I stripped the media off of the tweet because I wanted to post it below. Needless to say, there's an excellent explanation of how the North Stars got their colourful start in the NHL. The only difference? There was no yellow or gold in the original colour scheme!

Here's the newspaper article Vintage Minnesota Hockey attached on their tweet. I took the liberty of changing it from one long newspaper article into one that fits across this page a little nicer.

So Walter L. Bush Jr., president of the North Stars in 1967, made it clear that there were several colour combinations available to the team, but most were rejected due to their similarity to other "present and future NHL teams' colors and colors used by local teams." Bush also makes it clear they did not want to conflict with the Gophers, Twins, and Vikings.

I find it rather interesting that they opted not to go with specific colour schemes due to "future NHL teams". Could we have seen the North Stars in, say, yellow and blue like the St. Louis Blues? Perhaps orange and white like the Philadelphia Flyers? I'd love to know what other colour schemes they were considering based on their expansion brethren that joined the NHL with them in 1967. Knowing what they rejected might be more interesting than what they picked!

In any case, that's the story behind the Minnesota North Stars and their colours. That's a pretty cool little story for this holiday Monday in Canada, so get out and enjoy the rest of your day where ever you may be!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!