California Seals-inspired jerseys for Sharks are fakes, team president says

No, the Sharks’ alternate jerseys for the upcoming season aren’t going to resemble those worn by the California Seals in the mid-1970s.

That’s what Sharks team president Jonathan Becher tweeted Thursday morning, a few hours after pictures of what the team’s purported third jerseys would look like next season began to make the rounds on social media.

The jerseys were rumored to look like the ones the Seals wore from 1974 to 1976, pacific blue with gold trim, before the franchise relocated from Oakland to Cleveland. Instead of the word Seals, the rumored alternate jerseys would say Sharks in that same unique font.

“Entertained by the alternate jerseys designs on social media labeled as based on inside info,” Becher tweeted. “We have creative fans! None of these designs are real.”

The Seals were the Bay Area’s first NHL team, coming into the league in 1967 when it expanded from six teams to 12. Although the Seals’ ownership, color scheme and logo changed frequently over the course of their nine-year existence in Oakland, their record on the ice usually ranged from mediocre to poor.

The Oakland Seals made the playoffs just twice in nine years, in 1969 and 1970, and lost in the first round both times. Charlie Finley, the frugal owner of the Oakland A’s at the time, bought the team in 1970 and changed its colors from green with blue trim to kelly green and gold, just like the A’s. The team was also renamed the California Golden Seals.

Finley sold the team to the NHL in 1974. The word “Golden” was dropped from the team’s name and the Seals’ dominant color became pacific blue.

Curtis Pashelka, Mercury News