Indians' elimination marks official end of 'Chief Wahoo' logo

The Cleveland Indians' elimination from the 2018 playoffs also marked the end of an era for the franchise.

Barring something unforeseen, Monday's game was the last time that Chief Wahoo - the Indians' mascot that's long been protested by Native American groups - will be worn on the field. Cleveland announced plans to remove the mascot from its uniforms and caps earlier this year, with the change taking effect at the start of the 2019 season.

Although they'll be ditching the logo on the field, the Indians will continue to produce and sell some merchandise with Chief Wahoo's face in order to maintain a trademark on the image.

Chief Wahoo was designed in 1947, one year before the team's most recent World Series championship. Although the Indians have been using some version of the chief as their primary logo since that time, the image actually disappeared from their caps for over 20 years beginning in the 1960s, returning to the field full-time in 1986, according to sportslogos.net.

As calls to remove the chief grew louder over the past few years, the Indians began to slowly move away from the image. The team's official logo was changed to a block "C" in 2014, and Chief Wahoo has only been worn in certain uniform combinations over the past three years.

More distance was placed between the team and logo this year when Indians legend Jim Thome asked for Chief Wahoo not to be included on his Hall of Fame plaque, and the Hall complied.

The Indians also removed the logo from their uniforms during last month's trip to Toronto, where a human rights complaint about the logo's use was filed with the Ontario government two years ago.

Plans for a new Indians logo, beyond the team's presumed continued use of the block "C" icon, have not been announced.