On this day in 1997, the NHL approved a franchise to Columbus, giving birth to the Columbus Blue Jackets
On June 25th, 1997, the NHL granted approval for four cities to get expansion teams, and Columbus was one of them.
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Plans were announced about a month prior, on a privately funded $150 million downtown Columbus Arena, in what would be dubbed “The Arena District”. Today, more than 20 years after Nationwide Arena opened, the arena district still thrives. Since then, two more stadiums have been built. Huntington Park, for the AAA Columbus Clippers. The Clippers are the AAA farm team for the Cleveland Guardians. And then on July 3rd, 2021, the Columbus Crew of the MLS opened a beautiful new stadium, Lower.Com Field, just down the street from Nationwide Arena. Nationwide Blvd is now the home to three sports venues, numerous bars, restaurants, businesses, and 1000’s of apartments and condos.
But before the stadiums and bars, the team had to have a name. The franchise held a contest in August of 1997 to help name the team. 14,000 entries and it came down to two names, the Blue Jackets and Justice.
Columbus, Ohio has a rich Civil War history. But more importantly, in this case, the blue coats worn by Union Soldiers during the Civil War were made in Columbus. So, there you have it, simple. Many people thought it was named after an Indian Chief from nearby Southern Ohio, but that wasn’t the case.
Later, they picked Union Blue, Goal Red, and Capital Silver as the team colors. Perfect for the name. Blue being the blue coat the Union soldiers wore, Red being for goals scored in a hockey game, and Silver being in the logo, which represents Columbus being the capital of Ohio.
The team’s primary logo was inspired by the Ohio state flag, officially called the Ohio burgee. The original logo is a classic, with it being red, white, and blue, shaped in the letters C and B. A bright green hockey stick in the shape of the letter J coming down through the middle, with the Blue Jackets Star on top. CBJ was born.
After all that, the expansion draft, the NHL entry draft, and free agency, it was time, time to play the games.
The Columbus Blue Jackets made their NHL debut on October 7th, 2000, in front of a packed Nationwide Arena. Bruce Gardiner scored the first-ever goal in CBJ history, assisted by Krzysztof Oliwa and Kevyn Adams.
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From then on there’s been lots of ups and downs, but no matter what, people in this city absolutely love the Columbus Blue Jackets. The city embraced the team and has stuck with them no matter what. To date, the all-time record stands at 740-784-33-175. Hopefully, soon the fans can hear the sweet sounds of elation, as the team raises the Stanley Cup above their heads. It will be at that point; that you will see grown men and women all over Columbus crying. And it will be beautiful to watch.