Awesome Sports Logos Blog

The History Behind Our San Francisco Swallows Logo

This is one of our most talked about sports logos that we created and it truly has an amazing back story. So amazing that when I tell it, people accuse me of making it up. I wouldn’t do that! Okay, maybe I did make up a city and story for our Cocksville Blockers awesome t-shirt but just one made up city and logo out of 42 isn’t bad.

The Bay Area has some amazing heritage sports logos. From the Giants to the 49’ers to the Raiders and now the Golden State Warriors are building something special. This area is buzzing with passionate sports fans.

Now comes the San Francisco Swallows. I know what your first thought is and that’s what many find hilarious about the name but here is the true story behind the name and logo. Here is the quick explanation with some props involved. 

Here is the more detailed explanation. The White Swallow was a Clipper ship built in the Boston area back in 1853.

The Swallows primary mission was to travel from the east coast to California to support their booming trade. Here’s how this vessel became famous. In 1866, several members of the Swallows crew were arrested for mutiny. There was much more to the story. The crew of the Clipper ship were treated so harshly that two deaths occurred on the journey. The crew of the White Swallow had enough and took over the ship. During the trial many guests on the Swallow and some of the officers confessed the real story supporting the crew and their mutiny efforts. The case against the crew was dismissed.

For many years following many cases involving harsh working conditions were known as “White Swallow” cases.

We thought this was a fascinating story in Clipper history. Here is one of the original posters of the White Swallow.

From this poster, we built our San Francisco Swallows sports logo. I love the combination of grey, blue with the slightest bit of yellow on the border to make it stand out. We offer this logo on a light baby blue and a light grey t-shirt.

 

The San Francisco Swallows, the perfect holiday gift for that t-shirt lover in your life. Better yet, combo our Swallows t-shirt with a few other of our closet favorites and get a better deal with our T-shirt of the Month Club.

Thanks as always for reading. Go Swallows!

Gavin Spittle

Founder, Sports Logo and T-shirt Lover

Awesome Sports Logos