One of our old friends is going to pay us an unexpected and extended visit this summer. Someone we haven’t hung out with on a regular basis in over 15 years.
Don’t worry, your annoying college roommate — or for you younger readers, that old friend you haven’t heard from since middle school — isn’t coming to pay you a visit. No, I’m talking about the once-maligned by some and now beloved by all, Arizona Coyotes’ Kachina jersey.
The black sweater with the psychedelic Coyote on the front was the team’s alternate this season worn 18 times at Gila River Arena. The team recently announced that it will be their “home” jersey throughout the pandemic postseason. A one of a kind playoff format that will include 24 NHL teams and two host cities. The Yotes are the 11th seed in the Western Conference and will face off against the 6th seed Nashville Predators in a best of five series whenever the league resumes play.
So how did the idea and plan come to fruition? It started at the top with a little help from a family member.
“Our owner, Chairman and Governor Alex Meruleo and his son, Alex Junior, came up with the idea,” Coyotes Vice President of Communications Rich Nairn told Arizona Varsity. “It just made sense to give the fans and our players what they want for the playoffs. The announcement has been very well received.”
As well it should. These jerseys, for many fans like myself, represent when we were first introduced to, and fell in love with, the game of hockey. My parents, both East coasters, loved the sport. So much so that my father took me, 12 at the time, and my seven-year-old brother downtown on the night of April 8th,1996 to the America West Arena to find out what the team would be named.
I’ll never forget seeing the Stanley Cup on the ice, the pyrotechnics, the announcing of the name and the unveiling of the Kachina logo. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was as unique as the idea of a game predicated on ice being played in a city known for its 100+ degree days.
I remember my dad buying me what in retrospect was an oddly colored tan snapback with a forest green brim and the Coyote logo emblazoned on the front. No matter how funny it looked, I wore that thing proudly throughout the following months.
In the years to come, we spent many a night in that arena during my youth cheering on the team from section 202, row 8, seats 1 and 2. Or, on nights when we didn’t have our tickets, watching from the obstructed view seats as an exciting brand of hockey was played by the likes of Keith Tkachuck, Jeremy Roenick, Nikolai Khabibulin, Teppo Numminen, and many, many others in an even more exciting looking uniform.
It’s hard to believe that next season marks 25 years since we were first introduced to those uniforms. But the combination of fond memories of the Valley’s first taste of winning hockey and the truly unique and engaging logo make those sweaters unforgettable.
“It was an exciting design but it was certainly not a traditional hockey presentation," David Haney, who served as Creative Director for the NHL in 1996, told ArizonaCoyotes.com back in 2015. "It was hockey as interpreted with a Southwest feeling and the result was most intriguing. All of those different elements within that interpretation of the coyote on the skates with the stick were just fascinating to look at. It was a very complex logo, which was a good thing because it was giving you the opportunity to see something new every time you looked at it. Perhaps that’s why fans who fondly recall the logo gravitated to it. It was very engaging."
It’s not just local fans who still enjoy the logo. Uniform expert and journalist who runs Uni-Watch.com, Paul Lukas does as well.
“I think it's held up well,” Lukas told Arizona Varsity. “Especially compared to what the team has done since, which has been kind of bland. When you look at the Kachina design it really has so much more character. It's not surprising to me that it's a sentimental favorite with fans.
“I think older styles, in general, are always going be popular,” Lukas continued. “I think nostalgia is kind of a powerful intoxicant. Things that looked silly or even garish the first time around, with a few decades worth of hindsight, can look a little different and can suddenly seem endearing.”
Hopefully that nostalgia for the late 90s look and team mixed with a little of the 2012 current Coyotes ability to take care of business in the playoffs — when they did beat Nashville in the Western Conference Semifinals — will lead to an exciting summer of hockey in the desert.
Oh, and don’t worry, this won’t be the end of our old friends’ extended visit. Just the beginning.
“We are thrilled that our fans love the Kachina jersey and it will definitely be worn numerous times in 2020-21,” Nairn shared.
Let’s just hope we can get past this pandemic so we can all see it in person again next season.
