The Johnson City Cardinals franchise, which stopped playing in 2020, traces its roots to 1937. The latest name of the club was adopted in 1975, after six changes, and initially, it was called Johnson City Soldiers. During the last years of its existence, the Cardinals were competing in the Rookie class of the Appalachian League as a farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Johnson City Cardinals’ history was full of ups and downs. Despite its latest “Rookie” level, throughout the years, the Cardinals have won ten League Titles and eight Division ones, which is, obviously, a lot. The last League title was won by the club during their last season in the game, in 2019, so they were full of hopes and determination, looking forward, but the COVID pandemic happened and the 2020 season was postponed. After this situation, the Cardinals never came back to the field.
In terms of visual identity, the latest logo of the Johnson City Cardinals was aligned with that of its parent team, but was still distinctive and instantly recognizable, first of all, due to its bright color palette and bold graphics.
Although the cardinal bird depicted on the Johnson City Cardinals logo was inspired by the bird from the parent team’s logo, it looked absolutely different. The creature holding a baseball bat was ready for a game. Next to it, there was the name of the team in front of a mountain range.
The bird could be seen on the cap insignia, too. Here, it was standing between the letters “J” and “C.”
The redesign of 1995 has introduced a more professional and confident version of the club’s logo, with bold stylized lettering arched against a plain white background and accompanied by an enlarged image of a red cardinal bird with a baseball bat. The red geometric inscription was decorated by a blue pattern of triangular mountain peaks, placed above the characters and adding sharpness to the whole composition.