What Are Steeler Colors?

The Pittsburgh Steelers have used black and gold as their official team colors since they were founded in 1933. The Steelers, an National Football League (NFL) team, are the oldest franchise in the American Football Conference (AFC). As of 2011, the Steelers had won more Super Bowl championships (six) and more AFC title games (eight) than any other team in the NFL.

  1. History

    • The Steelers adopted the colors of black and gold after the city's baseball team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, as was the tradition of the time as football teams were created. (The Steelers' first proposed nickname was also the Pirates, but it was changed before they took the field.) Following their first postseason, the Steelers changed the color of their helmets from gold to black.

    Exception

    • The Steelers did not wear black and gold in the 1943 season, when World War II reduced the number of available football players. In this season, the Steelers merged with their state neighbors Philadelphia Eagles to form what was known as the "Steagles." The combo team wore the Eagles' green and white uniforms.

    Pittsburgh's colors

    • The city of Pittsburgh's flag is colored in black and gold, with two black columns around a gold central column. In Pittsburgh, black and gold are the official team colors of every major professional sports team, as of 2011. This list includes baseball's Pirates, hockey's Penguins and even the Pittsburgh Power of the Arena Football League and Pittsburgh Passion of the Independent Women's Football League.

    Variations in Pittsburgh

    • Specifially, the Steelers' gold is considered to be a brighter canary yellow than other teams' shade of gold. For example, the Pirates' gold is a darker, more mustard yellow-gold and the Penguins use a color akin to metallic gold. The Steelers' shade is officially known as "Steelers gold."

    Logo

    • In 1962, a steel company suggested to the Steelers they add a logo -- specifically, the insignia used universally by the steel companies -- to the helmet. Known as the Steelmark, the logo was a white circle enclosing three diamonds with inward-curving edges. The Steelers agreed, and sported the new logo in the 1962 season, during which the team won its first-ever postseason game. The logo was placed only on the right side of the helmet as the team was initially unsure how it would look. After winning that playoff game, the team left it on one side for continued good luck.