How Colorado’s Denver Nuggets Logo Changed Over Their 56-Year History

Colorado has always been a Broncos-centric state, but with the Avalanche and the Nuggets doing so well over the last couple of years, the spotlight has widened. The Nuggets have had almost 10 different logos; some were subtle changes, and some were big.

You'd probably have to be a "superfan" of the Nuggets to know all of the team logos that they've had. A superfan would even remember what the team's name was before they even took to the court for the first time. There's no logo for that, however.

The Denver Nuggets had never made it into the NBA Finals until the 20222-2023 season, after beating the Boston Celtics in the Western Conference Finals. Going over 50 years without an NBA Finals appearance is a long drought, but at least it came to an end.

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Denver's basketball team dates back to 1967 when they launched as a franchise team within the American Basketball Association. That team was initially called, the Denver Larks. The Larks? It does sound crazy, today; maybe it sounded crazy back then, too, because they never did play basketball as the Larks.

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The then-owner of the team, Bill Ringsby, owned a trucking company based out of Denver, the Ringsby Rocket Trucking System; he named the team the Denver Rockets. The Rockets played for seven full seasons in the ABA. When Denver was part of the ABA merger with the NBA, they had to change their name, because the Houston Rockets were already an established team in the NBA.

They held a contest to rename the Denver Rockets. When they hit the court in the NBA for that first season in 1974, they did so as the Denver Nuggets.

SOME OF THE GREAT NUGGETS PLAYERS:

• Dan Issel
• David Thompson
• Alex English
• Dikembe Mutombo
• Kiki VanDeWeghe
• Carmelo Anthony
• Chris Andersen
• Chauncey Billups
• Nikola Jokić

The team logo for the Nuggets has gone through eight changes in its 50+ years of existence. Starting with just basketball, then a rocket, then onto a miner, then the skyline, then back to a "miner" feel, with the miner's picks.