The story behind Sheffield Wednesday's iconic Owl as it makes a return for 2025/26

It’s been a while since the popular design graced the front of a Wednesday shirt, with Dejphon Chansiri swapping it out early into his tenure, but it's a design that is still lauded by fans and is the subject of thousands of tattoos, banners and shirt designs that fill the terraces at Hillsborough and beyond.

So fans were pleased to see it make a return to this season’s third shirt, almost a decade since it was replaced, with the kit debuting in the 2-1 defeat to Leicester City over the weekend. We all know the design, but do you know the story behind it?

Who designed the Owl?

Robert Walker, then a 19-year-old art and design student at Granville College in Rotherham, came up with ‘Ozzie’ back in 1973 after the club organised a competition to produce a new badge in a bid to fend of counterfeiters.

It would go on to become one of the most recognisable crests in the country and, aside from a five-year break in the mid-to-late 1990s, it was used right up until 2016 when the current owner opted to return to the more traditional badge that you now see on the home and away shirts.

Robert submitted the design as part of his college coursework at the time, but he never received any payment for the piece of work. He was offered something by the club, though, even if it didn’t appeal to him much.

“He was offered a season ticket but he turned it down,” his daughter, Jayne Davison, told The Star a while back. “He didn’t even like football!”

A design ahead of its time

The club’s general manager at the time, Eric Taylor, could tell immediately how popular the badge would prove to be, and explained the reasoning behind bringing it into being.

"Ozzie is now well ahead of his time,” Taylor said in The Star. “He will still be popular in 1983 and he will be alive and flying in 1993... We decided to get rid of the club crest and produce a new symbol which we could then copyright. This is a move which other clubs have made to beat the pirates who constantly use football club badges for their own gain without permission."

Meanwhile, speaking about his design, the man behind the pen told this publication in 1973, "I think Ozzie has both an aggressive and defensive look about him. But he's also a pretty wise looking bird. I hope he brings Wednesday lots of luck."

What happened to Robert Walker?

Mr. Walker would go on to work for Rotherham Borough Council in their printing a legal department, designing and producing their official leaflets and brochures. Upon retiring, Bob, as he was known to his friends, moved onto a houseboat and travelled up and down the waterways of the country.

He had a passion for design and quirkiness, with a fondness for ‘Reliant’ motors – he had a ‘Robin’, a ‘Kitten’ and a ‘Regal’ – and still loved to paint, though Jayne has explained previously that there are unfortunately very few examples of his work remaining. He sadly died on April 22nd 2020, at the age of 66, after suffering an epileptic seizure.

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