How Minnesota's Team Became the Timberwolves...

Minnesota's expansion team was officially dubbed the "Timberwolves" in December of 1986, nearly three years before the first game would be played on Nov. 3, 1989, and four months before the NBA officially granted Minnesota a team. After original owners Harvey Ratner and Marv Wolfenson submitted a formal expansion proposal to the NBA Board of Governors in October of 1986, they held a "Name the Team" contest that drew 6,076 entries from across the state featuring 1,284 different proposed nicknames. The two most common submissions, Timberwolves and Polars, were deemed finalists and the 842 city councils in Minnesota were asked to submit their vote for the winner. "Timberwolves" was selected by a 2-to-1 margin. Timberwolves was a fitting name for Minnesota's new team, as the state is home to the largest wolf population in the U.S. and the International Wolf Center, a comprehensive wolf research facility, is located in Ely, Minn.

In honor of the Timberwolves' 20th season of play, the team's logo has undergone a facelift to usher in a new era of Wolves basketball. Designed with assistance from adidas, the new version features a white accent on the face of the wolf along with a sleeker look for the tree line and text. Beginning with the 2008-09 season, the Wolves will also feature a new secondary logo depicting a wolf howling at the moon with a basketball in the background. The inclusion of the basketball pays homage to the original Wolves logo, which also featured a basketball background.

Amid a display of lasers and smoke at the Mall of America's main rotunda, the Wolves turned the page on the franchise's expansion days by unveiling this new look on May 18, 1996. Owner Glen Taylor described the new logo, designed by L.A.-based Mednick Design Group, as "a step towards being more competitive, more aggressive." The new design featured a metallic color scheme and a more ferocious, intimidating wolf.

Similar to the naming contest, the Timberwolves held a public contest to select the team's first logo. After receiving over 2,600 submissions, some coming from as far away as Alaska and Norway, the team settled on a design submitted by Mark Thompson of Austin, Minn. Original Team President Bob Stein described the winning submission as "aggressive, but not sinister." The logo was first unveiled to the public on an oversized $20,000 check that the team donated to the United Way on Sept. 17, 1987.