World Football Club Crests

In the centre of Ohio, south of Cleveland and Detroit, and between Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, lies Columbus. The state capital, with more than 850,000 inhabitants, is two hours away from the Canadian border. This is where German and Irish immigrants came together to build a town around a number of industries – and this is where football in the United States was reborn.

Two years after the country had successfully hosted the World Cup in 1994, it was time to inaugurate the new top league, Major League Soccer. Columbus Crew was one of the 10 original clubs to take part in the first season, and were the first in the league to have their own stadium specially adjusted for football. Columbus Crew Stadium was completed and inaugurated in time for the 1999 season.

Since then the club have achieved a number of respectable placings in the Eastern Conference, and won the MLS Cup in 2008. During this period they have been role models of continuity, both on and off the pitch – something to which the relatively late updating of the club’s emblem, and thereby its identity, bears witness.

CLUB: Columbus Crew SC

NICKNAME: The Black & Gold

FOUNDED: 1994

STADIUM: Mapfre Stadium, Columbus (19,968 capacity)

HISTORIC: Brian McBride, Jeff Cunningham, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Chad Marshall, Jonathan Mensah and Federico Higuaín

1996–2014. As the club grew out of the working man’s culture of the city of Columbus and of the whole state of Ohio, the name ‘Crew’ was pretty well inevitable. After the public voted for it as the ideal name for the new franchise, an emblem in this same spirit was needed. ‘It was necessary to represent society in a positive way. The name points to a hard-working team with a “show, don’t tell” attitude. It suggests a team, people working together,’ said Peter Moore of Adidas, who designed the emblem. It illustrates just what Moore is talking about: three determined, square-jawed builders in safety helmets, united below the franchise’s nickname. But this emblem was often criticised, and it was one factor that led to a rebranding 18 years later.

2014–present. It was in October 2014 that the club went through a process involving a change of both name and crest. At first sight today’s emblem looks like any generic logo, but there is in fact a great deal of symbolism behind the colours and patterns. The form of the emblem represents the togetherness and values that the club shares with the players, the club officials, the supporters and society. The outer black circle was inspired by German emblems and is an homage to the city’s German heritage. The inner circle represents the letter O from the state flag of Ohio. The number 96 refers to Crew being the first MLS franchise in that year. The nine diagonal lines in the background represent, generously, the other nine original MLS clubs. The diagonals also demonstrate the club striving onwards and upwards. The culture of the club’s supporters is represented through the yellow and black chessboard squares, a common symbol at the team’s matches.

Columbus Crew fans cheer on their team and display their allegiance in a second leg MLS Cup playoff match against the Colorado Rapids in 2010. A penalty kick shootout saw the Crew eliminated in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year.