- The Hawthorn Football Club formed in 1902 making them the youngest Victorian team in the AFL. The Club is nicknamed the Hawks.
Club symbols[]
When Hawthorn entered the VFL in 1925 their nickname was known as The Mayblooms. The maybloom was a flower that was profuse in the Hawthorn suburban area. In Round 2, 1943 when Hawthorn played Essendon, the match report in the Sporting Globe newspaper announced that prior to the start of the game at Glenferrie, Roy Cazaly, Hawthorn's coach told the players that in future they would be known as the Hawks instead of the Mayblooms. Cazaly said I expect players to live up to the name being ready to fight hard and carry the ball away with pace and dash to the goal. The Hawthorn FC has had four VFL/AFL endorsed logos in its entirety. The first (1977), a flying Hawk, was an adaptation of a pre-existing unofficial logo that appeared on the club's official documentation throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The Hawks's Mascot Manor representative and club mascot is Hudson "Hawka" Knights, a caricature of a hawk dressed the same way as the Hawthorn players and slightly depicting club champion Dermott Brereton.
Club guernsey[]
The Hawthorn colours are brown and gold vertical stripes. Hawthorn has worn this design since 1950. The current major sponsors are Tasmania, iiNet, Bupa, Audi and Adidas. Some of their former major sponsors are MBF, Samsung, HSBC and Puma. The standard home guernsey is used in all home and away games in Victoria, Sydney and Tasmania while the away guernsey is used in every away game in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. The club's colours and designs have changed a few times during their history. From 1902 to 1904 they wore a blue guernsey with red shoulders and a red stripe down the front of the guernsey along with blue and white hooped socks. After they merged with Boroondara in 1905 they changed to a black guernsey with a red sash with black and red hooped socks. After the club had struggled for a few years it was decided to reform it and for seasons 1912–13 and they wore a yellow guernsey with a blue V. Upon entering the VFA they had to change their colours again as Williamstown already had that combination and adopted the colours brown and gold which have since remained to this day although the design has changed a few times, the main ones being:
- 1914–1924 – brown with a gold circle around the neck and the HFC monogram in the centre
- 1925–1932 – brown with a gold V and a smaller HFC monogram on the left breast
- 1933–1934 – gold with a brown V
- 1934–1949 – brown with a gold V and brown socks with gold tops
- 1950–1974 – brown and gold stripes front and back with black numbers on a white panel and brown and gold hooped socks
- 1975–1988 – brown and gold stripes with a plain gold back and brown numbers with brown and gold hooped socks
- 1989–1997 – brown and gold stripes with a plain gold back and brown numbers with plain gold socks
- 1998–2005 – brown and gold stripes with a plain gold back and brown numbers with brown and gold hooped socks
- 2006–2012 – brown and gold stripes front and back with black numbers on a white panel and brown and gold hooped socks
- 2013–present – brown and gold stripes front and back with brown numbers on a gold panel and brown and gold hooped socks
Club song[]
The Hawthorn club song is entitled "We're a Happy Team at Hawthorn" and is sung to the tune of "The Yankee Doodle Boy" which was written by George M. Cohan for his 1904 musical Little Johnny Jones. In the musical Johnny Jones is a patriotic US jockey competing in England. The song gained prominence when it was featured in the wartime 1942 musical Yankee Doodle Dandy starring James Cagney as George M. Cohan performing the part of Johnny Jones on stage. The song was adapted with new Hawthorn lyrics by Chick Lander in 1956.