April 24th 1998, The Hamilton Spectator

 The brown thrasher is a tiny bird that forages in leaves and has been known to flee from a fight. Needless to say, that's not the impression suggested from the logo unveiled yesterday by the Atlanta Thrashers, who will join the NHL in 1999.

The Thrashers' logo is a fierce-looking bird with a scowl on its face, a tornado-like whirlwind for a body and a hockey stick brandished menacingly from its tail feathers.

"We look at this as the real beginning of our franchise," said Dave Maggard, vice-president of administration for Turner Sports.

"Now, people have something they can identify with."

Ted Turner came up with the name for his new NHL team after learning that the state bird of Georgia is the brown thrasher, a creature that measures about one-third of a metre from the tip of its beak to the end of its tail feathers.

Some bird experts say the thrasher is a meek animal that will turn tail feathers and run from a confrontation. But others say it can be an aggressive bird that forages on the ground and will squawk back when threatened.

There was no doubt which side the NHL team was on when it unveiled the logo during a ceremony in the atrium of CNN Centre, next door to a new 18,500-seat arena that's under construction on the site of the old Omni.

"We didn't want to have a silly comic book character or a weak- looking logo," Maggard said. "The idea was to have a bird, yet at the same time a bird of prey."

He glanced at the new logo proudly. "That's a bird that will go after more than worms," Maggard said.

The thrasher may be brown, but that colour is too bland for today's high-profile sports marketing campaigns. The bird that will adorn T-shirts, hats and anything else the Thrashers can sell will be copper, bronze and gold, against a background comprised of two shades of blue.