The Ottawa Citizen May 24th 1991

Set aside the condom jokes. And call them the big, bad, all-for-one Senators.

That is the image that Ottawa's re-entry into the NHL cares to depict with its red and gold crest of a Roman general emblazoned on a black jersey. The controversial crest, a version of which was leaked to the press one week ago, was officially unveiled at a lavish Congress Centre news conference Thursday afternoon.

''When people pull on a Boston Bruins sweater, something happens to them,'' said Randy Sexton, the Senators' chief executive officer. ''We're trying to create that with these jerseys.''

The original hockey Senators adapted their name from the Ottawa Senate, some of whose members today are slightly ancient. The modern Senators are adapting a European senate, from an ancient empire.

''The Roman Senate was made up of generals, leaders and magistrates,'' said Sexton. ''Men of vision and courage. Men who put themselves behind their communities. And that is what we are looking for in our hockey players, men who put the team before themselves, men who put their community before themselves.''

While Sexton spoke of emulating the bruising Bruins, crest designer Tony Milchard, whose work so impressed the Senators front office that he has been added to the staff full time, looked to Rome and Chicago for inspiration.

Milchard said the Chicago Blackhawks emblem ''projects an image of power and determination.'' The Roman Senate provided a loose link with the Ottawa Senate.

''It was a tough challenge matching something to the Senators,'' said Milchard, who spent roughly two months on the project. ''The original Senate was part of the Roman Empire. They were military leaders and not necessarily elderly. The gold stands for excellence. The general is a centurian figure, strong and prominent... he couldn't be weak and goofy.''

To the rocking sounds of Gary Glitter, the Senators borrowed several NHL local sons to model the jerseys, home and away: Peter Lee, Tim Higgins, Ted Bulley, Fred Barrett and John Barrett.

Both the home white and away black jerseys feature a red band below the crest, two red bars on the sleeves and a winged shoulder crest. That crest shows a letter S and and the Roman numerals for 1894, when the original hockey Senators were born.

The white sweaters have small, white numbers on the sleeves and large, black digits on the back. On the black sweater, all numbers are white.

There have been remarks this week about the likeness of the symbol to that of the American Express card, the USC Trojans and the Trojan condom. Senators president Jim Durrell said he expected a wide range of strong opinions ''because people care about their hockey team.''

''But when we hit the ice, people won't be saying, 'Where is the old word logo,' they'll stand up and say, 'That is one hell of a uniform.' "

Durrell, the former Ottawa mayor, admitted he was a big fan of the so-called word logo, with the Ottawa Senators name wrapped around the Peace Tower and a flying Canadian flag. The NHL frowned upon the symbol as being too colloquial for a permanent hockey crest, but the Senators say they will continue to use it on letterhead and souvenirs.

The new crest was offered to fans at a news conference souvenir table Thursday, on products ranging from $5 pins, pens and keychains to $185 hockey jackets.