On June 25th, 1997, the NHL granted approval for four cities to get expansion teams, and Columbus was one of them. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, and Atlanta were the other cities approved for expansion.
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 26 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, ScottsMiracle-Gro 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. After 14,000 entries, 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 a native American 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 its colors 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.
From then on, there have 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, their all-time record stands at 847-890-33-208. Hopefully, 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.
Happy Birthday to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Next Up For Columbus: The NHL Draft is on June 26 and 27 in Buffalo, where the CBJ will own pick #14.
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