Olympia Stadium, better known as the Detroit Olympia and nicknamed The Old Red Barn, stood at 5920 Grand River Avenue in Detroit from 1927 until 1987.
The Olympia opened the fall of 1927 at a then-whopping cost of $1,300,000. It would serve as the home to its main tenant, the Detroit Cougars (later known as the Falcons and then the Red Wings) for the next 52 years.
The Cougars originally sported sweater jerseys bearing a Gothic D similar to the old English D worn by the Detroit Tigers. The now-famous winged wheel insignia wasn’t worn until the franchise stole an existing logo from a Canadian team.
The video below, produced by Detroit’s Channel 2 News, tells the story of where the Red Wings came from, how Olympia Stadium came into being, and the origins of the famous winged wheel logo. It provides a great historical summary of one of the most storied franchises in all of professional sports.
