Sport signifiers and symbols: an ideographic analysis of the 1990 women’s world ice hockey championship

Abstract

ABSTRACTMany organizations and teams in the sport industry rebrand themselves by making changes to team logos, names, and/or colors; these changes are not always favorably received by fans and other stakeholders, as team logos or colors can have hidden or secondary meanings. This was the situation in 1990 at the women’s world ice hockey championship (WWHC), held in Ottawa, Canada. Instead of wearing the colors associated with Canadian national teams, players wore bright pink jerseys with white trim. Response was widespread and immediate, with stakeholders taking a strong stance on the decision. This paper introduces ideographic analysis to further examine the reaction to the jerseys. Several themes emerged, where response was articulated in terms of the traditional red and white national team colors and the history of representing Canada in competition, and in terms of what wearing the color pink meant for women during this time period.