Name honors animal that lived in state during last Ice Age
Utah Mammoth.
That is the permanent brand identity of Utah’s NHL franchise after a 13-month process that included four rounds of surveys and more than 850,000 votes, the team announced Wednesday.
Mammoth was the fans’ clear favorite in the final round of voting, according to the team. The name — deliberately singular, in an all-for-one spirit — honors an animal that lived in Utah during the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago.
The primary logo, called the “Mountain Mammoth,” includes the snow-capped Wasatch Mountains on the crown, the outline of the state of Utah in one of the peaks and tusks curving up to form a “U.” The rallying cry is “Tusks Up.”
The Mountain Mammoth charges across the front of the home jersey, while an updated “U-T-A-H” steps down the front of the away jersey.
The colors will be the same used by the Utah Hockey Club during the team’s inaugural 2024-25 season: Rock Black, Mountain Blue and Salt White.
“From Day 1, we committed that this team would be built with and for the people of Utah, and we are excited to celebrate today’s launch with the entire state,” owners Ryan and Ashley Smith said in a statement. “The community chose the Utah Mammoth brand, and it stands as a symbol of who we are, where we came from and the unstoppable force we’re building together.”
The NHL established a new franchise in Utah on April 18, 2024, and Utah purchased the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes.
The branding process of a professional sports team usually takes at least 18 months from design to trademark clearance. On a compressed timeline, Utah adopted the temporary identity of the Utah Hockey Club while working on the permanent identity with the design firm Doubleday & Cartwright.
Fans voted on names and logos. In the end, Utah Mammoth stomped the other finalists: Utah Hockey Club and Utah Outlaws.
“When it came to naming the team, we did something unprecedented — going through four rounds of community voting, including getting feedback not only on potential names but also on potential logos,” the Smiths said. “We love the passion of the people of Utah and the way they showed up for the team during its inaugural season and the energy they brought to voting on its permanent identity.”
Paleontologists have found mammoth bones “at various spots in the state, some so well-preserved that they still contained tatters of DNA,” according to an article on the Natural History Museum of Utah website.
That gives the Mammoth historical significance, while details provide a sense of place, according to the team.
The “Mountain Mammoth” primary logo also sits on the shoulders of the away jersey. A new “Utah Badge” secondary logo sits on the shoulders of the home jersey, featuring the outline of the state of Utah, the stairstep “U-T-A-H” from the inaugural uniforms, and a hockey stick. A tusk cuts through the “U” in another secondary logo on both sets of pants.
The new identity honors and updates the inaugural one. It uses a new custom-designed typeface, Mammoth Sans, featuring a 10-degree forward slant to mirror Utah’s mountainous terrain and angled crossbars on the “A” and “H” to link to the inaugural lettering system.
The uniforms keep the same striping design and color scheme — black at home, white on the road — but the players’ numbers will be in Mammoth Sans. Inside the collar of both jerseys, it will say, “EST. 2024.”
A limited selection of first-round Mammoth merchandise will go on sale at the team store at Delta Center at 2 p.m. ET, including hats, hoodies and T-shirts. Items will be available next week at NHLShop.com.
Home jerseys will be ready for the prospects at the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft at L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Utah holds the No. 4 pick in the first round June 27 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) after winning the second draw and moving up 10 spots in the NHL Draft Lottery on Monday. Rounds 2-7 will be June 28 (Noon ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, SN1).
Jerseys will be available to the public when the rest of the NHL’s jerseys are released before the 2025-26 season.
A new Ice Age dawns, introducing Utah Mammoth
