Who doesn’t love the throwback Patriots gear with the original logo hiking the ball?
The original Patriots logo is called Pat. It was taken off the team’s helmets in the 1990s and replaced with the Flying Elvis logo.
The Pat Patriot design was created by cartoonist Phil Bissell, who was at the Patriots Pro shop Friday signing copies of his latest book “Pat’s Pa”
“It seems to be more prevalent, that pat is coming back,” he said.
Bissell drew Pat 55 years ago, when the team was first established as the Boston Patriots.
Team owner at the time, Billy Sullivan liked the logo so much he made a deal with Bissell.
“He said ‘we’re going to pay you for the use of Pat on our stationary for one year.’ I got $100. That’s all I have made with Pat Patriot,” Bissell said.
Bissell said there’s no hard feelings, $100 dollars was more than a day’s pay back then.
He also got paid for other art projects including drawings of Vince Lombardi, Carl Yastrzemski and Bill Russell.
Some are in his new book, along with his cartoons of hundreds of sport legends which are a collector’s dream
“Well, it’s brought back history,” Charlie Orcutt from Westwood said. “He did a lot of covers of the programs at Fenway Park, and I still have them.”
“I think Mr. Bissell’s wonderful. I’m very excited to have his book, and all these years of cartooning that he’s done,” Michelle Gurtler from Bar Harbor, Maine, said.