June 4 is a day Seattle Seahawks fans everywhere should celebrate, or at least crack open a beer to say cheers, as it is a sort-of birthday for the team.
On June 4, 1974, the National Football League awarded the City of Seattle its 28th franchise, which would have its inaugural season in 1976. The news of professional football coming to Seattle was the culmination of several years worth of work trying to acquire a team, dating back to even the late 1950s.
What was once a long-held desire soon appeared to be within grasp, thanks to the 1970 NFL-AFL merger which was looking to expand the league. With the possibility of acquiring a team seeming to be growing, Seattle businesses and community leaders worked tirelessly in the early 1970s to ensure this would finally become a reality.
Their hard work paid off on June 4, 1974. The NFL was finally coming to the Pacific Northwest, and the league hasn’t looked back since.
Of course, the iconic nickname of the team didn’t come into fruition until the following year, when out of 20,000+ entries in a public naming competition, the name “Seahawks” was selected.
Despite considerable struggles in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, the Seahawks in the 21st century have become one of the league’s more consistent, and most recognizable franchises. Of course, all the success the team – and 12th Man – has enjoyed in recent years wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work in the ’70s to convince the NFL to come to the Emerald City in the first place.
From all of us at the SeahawksWire team, cheers to June 4!
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