Chicago Bulls

Few team names feel as naturally tied to their city as the Chicago Bulls. When the franchise was founded in 1966, owner Dick Klein wanted a name that reflected Chicago’s heritage as the capital of meatpacking and livestock. The city’s cattle markets were famous worldwide, immortalised in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. “Bulls” captured that spirit perfectly — strong, stubborn, aggressive, and instantly recognisable.

Of course, the Bulls became far more than a nod to stockyards. They grew into one of the most successful and famous franchises in sports history. The 1990s dynasty, led by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and coach Phil Jackson, redefined basketball, winning six NBA Championships (1991–93, 1996–98). Jordan became a global icon, and the Bulls’ red jersey with the snorting bull head logo became one of the most recognised sporting symbols in the world. Today, the legacy of that dynasty still shapes how people see both Chicago and basketball itself.

But to understand the Bulls’ badge is also to understand Chicago. The city rose from a trading post on the Chicago River to the great hub of the American interior. Its position on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan made it the perfect port — the link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi watershed. The opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848 meant goods could move by water from the Atlantic seaboard all the way into the heart of North America. Later, the railroads converged on Chicago, making it the nation’s central switchyard. Grain, lumber, and cattle poured in from the prairies and went out to the world.

Chicago’s innovations helped drive this boom. Grain elevators, first introduced in the 1840s, mechanised storage and shipping, transforming global agriculture. The Union Stock Yards, opened in 1865, became the centre of the U.S. meat industry, where millions of cattle and hogs were processed each year. Refrigerated railcars extended Chicago’s reach, and soon its beef fed the nation. This was the city that supplied the world, a city of restless industry and constant invention.

The Bulls, with their charging logo and no-nonsense name, carry that same heritage. They represent the power of a city built on stockyards and steel rails, on ports and elevators, on the unglamorous but world-shaping work of moving goods and feeding millions.

Chicago itself has always been a place of resilience. Rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1871, it grew into a metropolis of skyscrapers, immigrants, and ideas. The architecture of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, the blues and jazz of the South Side, the labour struggles and world’s fairs — Chicago has always been at the crossroads of America’s story.

The Chicago Bulls reflect that identity. A team named for the animal that defined the city’s markets, a badge that snorts with defiance, and a history that roared to global fame with Michael Jordan’s dynasty. Like the city itself, the Bulls are tough, innovative, and unafraid to take centre stage.