It's Official: Solar Bears are Back!
Wednesday · Nov 16 · 2011 | 11:15 AM PST
Photo by @Kaleta_DiceRoll via TwitterThe Orlando Solar Bears are making their return to pro hockey next fall, this time in the ECHL.
The announcement was made today at the home of the new franchise, the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla, in front of media and fans — one of which was kind enough to share this photo with us (right).
Whie the club is sticking with the name that brought the city hockey success during its brief existence in the International Hockey League, which folded in 2001, there will be a new logo and uniforms.
The team will unveil its team logos and jersey designs, announce its NHL and AHL affiliations, and introduce its coaching staff over the next 6-8 months.
The team has retained The Joe Bosack Graphic Design Company (joebosack.com) to design its primary and secondary logos along with new jersey designs and wordmarks. Joe Bosack designed the Colorado Avalanche logo and a number of current ECHL team marks.
Good news there because I don't think Joe Bosack's company has ever produced a bad logo. Can't wait to see what they come up with for the Solar Bears.
Orlando won't join the ECHL until next year, but they're getting a jump on marketing — with the slogan "Out of Hibernation!" — in order to sell season tickets and create awareness. They don't want to catch central Florida hockey fans by surprise when the team hits the ice in October 2012.
RIP old logo 1995—2001The Solar Bears will be the first in-state rival for the Florida Everblades since the Pensacola Ice Pilots went away a few years ago. (They have since been replaced by the semi-pro Ice Flyers of the SPHL.)
The Solar Bears will share their home with the Orlando Magic, and given the current state of the NBA, it's a shame they couldn't start play sooner. The Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League, also call the Amway Center home — which accounts for the gridiron in the above photo.
What do you think of today's announcement? Happy to see the Solar Bears name coming back? Sad to see that the rather colorful logo (left) is not?
And northerners, before you bemoan the addition of another hockey team to the south, remember that your retired parents live in Florida and still like hockey too.
Reader Comments (10)
I would hope for the logo looking almost the same, but just cleaned up a bit. I love the old logo, but it kind of looks like his face is melting. A sharp looking white bear with sunglasses holding a hockey stick is still the way to go. Also, I like the new sci-fi font - I hope they go with that since it makes sense while referring to things with "solar."
I'm so glad the Solar Bears are back, like you said kind of bummed they're losing that amazing logo...
Glad to see Bosack designing the logos, they did a great job with the new Stingrays logos a few years back. And I always loved the name as well.
Solar Bears! nice what a fitting name. Cant wait to see the new jerseys and logos they'll have for the team. I liked the last one, but with Joe Bosack leading the charge it will be an even better logo than before
Love it. Glad they are keeping the purple and teal. Liked the old logo but most happy they are keeping the old colours. Something for me to do when I go with the kids to Disney.
I was a huge IHL/ECHL/WPHL follower in Vancouver, Canada back in the 1990s and did some minor league hockey jersey acquisitions from eBay. I collected jerseys amass and did some crazy things to them by putting players' names and numbers that don't match up on the original team's rosters. For instance, I have a black Orlando Solar Bears jersey with Rumun Ndur (with their trademark upper-lowercase font combo) #75; San Francisco Spiders black jersey with Pierre-Luc Letourneau-LeBlond (the entire hyphenated last name on namebar) #53; Augusta Lynx black jersey with K. Gretzky #49 on them just to name a few... If the Solar Bears are truly out of hibernation they should reincarnate their original jersey by keeping the purple and orange and most importantly retaining their timeless polar/solar bear with sunglasses on (maybe even an alternate logo with just the bear head with the shades on). I also want to see the upper/lowercase font brought back on the namebar!! It was the most original thing I have ever seen on hockey jersey since they introduced it in the "I". By the way, my favorite jersey in my collection is the pinstriped Mad City Monsters purple jersey with my name Tam #97 on the back!! Welcome back Solar Bears!!
Chris, thanks for compiling this site for us jersey geeks! May I suggest a retro section reminiscing old minor league logos/jerseys especially for lesser-known & short-lived teams like Arkansas GlacierCats, Topeka ScareCrows, Dallas Freeze, Tupelo T-Rex, Lake Charles Ice Pirates, Jackson Bandits, etc? Much appreciated. How about a Solar Bears user-design concept contest? Perhaps a user-submit jersey collection pics section on your site in the future?
Glad to see the Solar Bears are back. Always liked the name, and logo. Very clever marketing back in the early days of hockey in FLA. Loved to watch them the few times they came to play my Lumberjacks here in Cleveland in the end times of the IHL. I agree with most of the mosts, hopefully they don't change things too much, just a few tweaks. It was a very good logo for its time, and its still one of my favorites.
Why not use Solar Bears again?! I always thought it was a clever name. They better have early game starts for all the blue hairs.
So excited to see the name back! Cannot wait to see the new logo and jersey.
Honestly, the best possible NHL affiliation has to the be the Lightning. The proximity makes it perfect and it should boost the broad fan support for both teams.
The Panthers would serve as a decent second choice. Being affiliated with anyone other than a Florida team would be a travesty. I still think the Everblades and Panthers missed the boat.