Hartford Whalers Jersey

The distinctive Green and Blue of the Hartford Whalers jersey is one of the most unmistakable uniforms in sporting history.  The vintage New England Whalers organization began as a franchise for the now defunct World Hockey Association in the 1972 season. After 7 seasons and one league championship in the WHA, the Whalers were welcomed into the NHL fold in 1979. Following protest from the Boston Bruins, a condition of the merger with the NHL stipulated the Whalers drop ‘New England’ from the franchise name. The team would go on to be known as the Hartford Whalers.

The Hartford Whalers Logo

The name change to the Hartford Whalers also came with a new logo featuring the recognizable green “W” with the whale’s tail in blue and as such created the letter “H” in the white space. The new logo was the first logo in the franchise history to not include the harpoon, something that made the environmentalists happy! One thing that didn’t change with the new name and the new logo was Pucky the Whale, whose image was still crested on the shoulders of the jersey as it had been since inception.  The new logo was the crest that adorned the the Hartford Whalers Green Away jerseys and classic Home White jerseys during 1979-80, their first NHL season, and survived until 1992 when the addition of silver was added and the blue changed shade to navy.

Whalers Retire The Green Jersey

The 1992-93 season was the first for ‘the Whale’ without the green road jersey. Blue was now the primary color while the logo and stripes were augmented with silver highlights. Every NHL team’s uniform, including the Whalers jersey, saw a 100th anniversary Stanley Cup patch sewn on the right breast during that season. In 1996-97, for the Whalers last season in Hartford, the blue of the road jersey was darkened even more. So much so, it almost appeared black!  Some have said that this was an effort by the Whalers to capture some of the merchandising success that the Los Angeles Kings enjoyed with their move to black uniforms.

The vintage Hartford Whalers jersey is still very popular with hockey fans. In fact, Hartford Whalers merchandise is some of the most popular vintage hockey apparel available. At any NHL arena you are bound to see at least a few Hartford Whalers hats, certainly some Whalers t-shirts and possibly the odd Ron Francis #10 or Gordie Howe #9 Hartford Whalers jersey!