Smith Entertainment Group announced Wednesday morning that Utah’s NHL team will now be known as the “Utah Mammoth.”
Four rounds of public voting yielded approximately 850,000 responses. Mammoth was the clear favorite, according to the team.
The new team name is intended to represent strength, momentum and an earth-shattering presence, and pays homage to the boldness with which the franchise entered the league.
A new Ice Age dawns. Introducing Utah Mammoth. #TusksUp pic.twitter.com/B2yuoflDRt
Fans will notice that the name is singular: Mammoth, not Mammoths. The team noted that this represents unity as a state and moving forward as one.
“From day one, 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,” said team owners Ryan and Ashley Smith in a press release. “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.”
Mammoths roamed the earth 10,000 years ago and bones have been found in Utah, meaning they lived in the area.
New logos and altered jerseys accompany the name change.
The home jerseys will feature a similar logo to the one in the most recent survey, with a few changes — a mountain outline, a mark in the shape of the state of Utah, an uppercase “M” for Mammoth and a U-shaped tusk. These jerseys will have an alternate logo on the shoulders in the shape of the state, with “Utah” spelled out and a hockey stick underlining the letters.
As the Deseret News reported in November, the new away jerseys are very similar to those from the team’s inaugural season: U-T-A-H descends on the front in a staircase formation.
The Utah Mammoth jerseys do, however, have a slightly different font, which the team calls “Mammoth Sans.”
The shoulder emblems on the away jerseys will be the same as the primary logo on the home jerseys.
Both the home and away jerseys will feature wording inside the back of the collar reading “Est. 2024,” with a white ring added to the inside of the away collar.
The names and numbers on the jerseys will also use a new font.
The “A” and the “H” in Mammoth Sans both feature angled crossbars as a nod to several of the inaugural season logos. The striping and the colors will be the same as the inaugural season jerseys.
An additional logo will feature a “U” with a mammoth tusk swooping across the front.
Mammoth merchandise will be available in the team store starting at noon on Wednesday. Jerseys will not be available yet, but shirts, hoodies, hats and more will be.
The new jerseys will be on display at the NHL draft from June 27-28. Each player Utah drafts will don one.
The team received the fourth pick at Monday’s draft lottery. The new branding might be a good reason to keep the pick, rather than trading it.
The Utah Mammoth will adopt the rally cry “tusks up,” which became popular on social media among those in favor of the name over the past few months.
The team did not specify the extent to which it would use the slogan, but it could become the Utah Mammoth’s official hashtag on social media and be used for merchandise.
A new in-arena mascot will accompany the name change. Details will be released at a later date, according to team leaders.
Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Colorado Mammoth lacrosse team, supports SEG’s use of the name.
