In 1921 Allie May Schmidt was tasked with creating table decorations for a men’s fellowship club meeting in which Branch Rickey would be in attendance. We initially had the date of this meeting listed as February 16, 1921, but a recent discovery of a Globe Democrat newspaper article says that the meeting was actually on February 15, 1921. While this may seem like a small change, we always strive for accuracy and authenticity. According to this newspaper article, the true debut of Allie May’s red birds was on Tuesday evening, February 15, 1921.
I was in charge of the decorating of the tables for the club meetings. This date coming after Lincoln’s birthday and Valentines day- and we had another party planned for Washington’s birthday; so I felt we should have something different – but I wondered what it could be. So a few days before the meeting as I sat wondering what I could use that would be appropriate, just outside of my window a beautiful cardinal perched upon a lilac bush. The ground was white with snow. That February day I thought – “how lovely that would be to have Cardinals on the white table cloths.” (Cardinals to me always meant birds. I did not know at the time that cardinal meant the color of the Ballplayers socks – as Browns meant Brown socks and White Socks etc.) So I immediately made red bird cutouts of red cardboard and painted in the details – placed them on brown strings for twigs. Usually two on a twig to represent Cardinals (plural). We also had a large center piece of Cardinal red carnations.
Cardinals Uniforms & Logos 