Detroit Cougars — Royal Retros Detroit Cougars Fan Shop

Heritage Jerseys & Tees for Two Forgotten Detroit Cougars Teams. Custom Names & Numbers. Sizes S–5XL. Hockey and Soccer, Four Decades Apart.

Royal Retros carries heritage apparel for two completely different professional teams that both wore the Detroit Cougars name: the city's original NHL franchise, which skated from 1926 to 1930 before a name change, and a long-forgotten Detroit Cougars soccer club that played a season and a half in the old North American Soccer League in 1967 and 1968. We stock three in-stock products across both eras: a custom hockey jersey in White, a Detroit Cougars hockey T-shirt in four colorways, and a separate Detroit Cougars soccer T-shirt built around the NASL crest. The jersey runs $89.99 for a standard cut and $119.99 for a goalie cut, with free custom name and number on the standard build. T-shirts are $29.99 apiece. Sizes run Small through 5XL on most colorways. If you've only ever heard of one Detroit Cougars team, there's a decent chance you're about to learn about the other.

What You Can Shop in the Detroit Cougars Collection

Detroit Cougars Hockey Jersey — one in-stock custom hockey jersey in White, twill-style crest construction with period-correct striping. Free custom name and number on the standard cut. $89.99 standard, $119.99 for the goalie cut, Small through 5XL. Browse the wider custom hockey jersey range if you want to cross-shop other leagues.

Detroit Cougars Hockey T-Shirt — a premium pre-shrunk soft-blend tee at $29.99, covering the NHL-era Cougars. Black, Athletic Heather and White run the full S–5XL range; Red tops out at 3XL. More at our full hockey T-shirt collection.

Detroit Cougars Soccer T-Shirt — a separate $29.99 tee built around the 1967-68 NASL Cougars' identity, not the hockey team. Black and Athletic Heather run S–5XL; Orange and White run S–4XL. Cross-shop the wider NASL collection for the rest of the league's original 1968 map.

Customization — the hockey jersey offers free name and number personalization. Custom items are made to order and are final sale.

Sizes — Small through 5XL on the jersey and most tee colorways; a couple of accent colors top out at 3XL or 4XL. We do not upcharge for big & tall sizes.

Two Teams, One Name — Shop by Sport

NHL Detroit Cougars (1926–1930) — the city's first-ever National Hockey League franchise, built around a roster bought outright from a Stanley Cup champion. Shop the hockey jersey and the hockey T-shirt.

NASL Detroit Cougars (1967–1968) — a season-and-a-half professional soccer club that opened as a European team wearing a Detroit crest and closed with its own roster. Shop the soccer T-shirt, and cross-shop Michigan for the wider state catalog.

Why Royal Retros Is the Home of Detroit Cougars Throwback Gear

• Two Detroit teams, not one generic city logo. The 1926–30 NHL Cougars and the 1967–68 NASL Cougars get their own real designs, not a single throwback stamped with two different sports.
• Coverage that does not exist anywhere else. Almost nobody makes apparel for either of these teams individually, let alone both.
• Free customization on the jersey. Add your own name and number at no extra cost on the standard cut.
• Sizes Small through 5XL. No big & tall upcharge on any product in the collection.
• Deep Michigan cross-shopping. Pair a Cougars piece with the wider Michigan catalog, Legacy Hockey or the NASL collection in a single order.

Quick Buying Questions

What sizes do Detroit Cougars products come in?

The jersey runs Small through 5XL, plus a Goalie Cut. The hockey tee runs S–5XL in Black, Athletic Heather and White, and S–3XL in Red. The soccer tee runs S–5XL in Black and Athletic Heather, and S–4XL in Orange and White. We do not upcharge for big & tall sizes.

Can I customize a Detroit Cougars jersey?

Yes — the hockey jersey offers free custom name and number on the standard cut. Custom items are made to order and are final sale.

What do Detroit Cougars products cost?

The jersey is $89.99 standard or $119.99 for the goalie cut. T-shirts are $29.99.

How fast does it ship and what is the return policy?

Standard products ship within 3–5 business days. Custom items with a personalized name or number are made to order and ship within 7–10 business days. Custom items are final sale. Standard items follow our return policy at /pages/returns.

Gift Ideas from the Detroit Cougars Collection

• For the Detroit hockey historian — the hockey jersey with a custom name and number, honoring the franchise before it ever wore its later colors.
• For the soccer trivia fan — the soccer tee, built around a club most Detroit sports fans have never heard existed.
• For anyone who thinks they know Detroit sports history — pair both tees and watch them realize there were two Cougars teams, not one.

What Was the Original Detroit Cougars Hockey Team?

The Detroit Cougars were Detroit's first National Hockey League franchise, playing four seasons from 1926 to 1930 before a rebrand ended the name. The city was granted an NHL license in May 1926, and a group of Detroit investors led by Charles A. Hughes did not build a roster from scratch — they bought one outright. That September, the group purchased the entire playing roster of the Victoria Cougars of the Western Canada Hockey League, a team that had won the Stanley Cup in 1925 and reached the Finals again the following year, and kept the Cougars name when the players relocated to Detroit. It is a strange bit of hockey trivia that Detroit's first NHL team inherited both its nickname and its championship pedigree from a team on the other side of the continent that had nothing to do with the city until the sale went through.

Why Did Detroit's First NHL Team Play Its Home Games in Windsor, Ontario?

Detroit's new arena was not ready in time for the Cougars' first season. Olympia Stadium was still under construction through the 1926–27 campaign, so the team played its inaugural NHL season at the Border Cities Arena, just across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario — meaning Detroit's first-ever NHL home games were not technically played in Detroit at all. The Cougars moved into the finished Olympia for the 1927–28 season, and that building remained the franchise's home rink for more than five decades afterward, long after the Cougars name itself was gone.

What Happened in Detroit's First-Ever NHL Game?

Detroit's first National Hockey League game was played on November 18, 1926, at the Border Cities Arena against the Boston Bruins, in front of a sellout crowd of roughly 6,000. It did not go the new franchise's way: the Cougars lost 2–0 after their starting goaltender fell ill and substitute Herb Stuart gave up both goals in the first three minutes of the game. Despite the loss, the sellout crowd and the novelty of NHL hockey in the Detroit area were reported at the time as a success in their own right — the beginning of major-league hockey in a city that has supported the sport at the highest level ever since.

Which Stanley Cup Champions Wore the Original Cougars Jersey?

Beyond Frank Fredrickson, the Victoria roster that became the Cougars carried some of the most decorated players in the sport's early history. Goaltender Harry "Hap" Holmes won the Stanley Cup four separate times with four different teams — the Toronto Blueshirts, the Seattle Metropolitans, the Toronto Arenas and the Victoria Cougars — before finishing his career in a Detroit Cougars jersey, a championship résumé matched by almost no one else who has ever played the position. Forward Frank Foyston was right there with him, a three-time Stanley Cup champion across three different franchises before joining Detroit. Forward Jack Walker, who had won championships alongside Foyston and Holmes going back to their days together on the Seattle Metropolitans, rounded out one of the most quietly star-studded rosters any expansion franchise has ever iced. Art Duncan, who had coached the Victoria Cougars to their 1925 Stanley Cup, made the move to Detroit as well. It is a genuinely unusual story in professional sports: an entire championship core, coach included, transplanted wholesale into a brand-new city and league at once.

Why Did the Cougars Struggle in Their First Seasons?

A championship roster on paper did not translate into immediate success on the ice. The Victoria players had to adjust to a faster, more competitive NHL, and the Cougars finished their debut 1926–27 season with just 12 wins and more than $80,000 in debt — a rough start for a franchise that had been sold to Detroit as an instant contender. The early struggles were as much about the jump in league quality as anything else: the league the Cougars came from folded that same year, and its best players were suddenly spread across a tougher, faster NHL all at once.

Which Hall of Famers Wore the Original Cougars Jersey?

The Victoria roster that became the Cougars carried real star power. Forward Frank Fredrickson, a future Hockey Hall of Famer, Olympic gold medalist and World War I airman, signed with Detroit for the 1926-27 season at $6,000 — making him the highest-paid player in professional hockey that year. He did not last the season in Detroit, playing just 16 games before being traded to the Boston Bruins, but his brief Cougars run remains one of the more remarkable footnotes of the franchise's early roster. Fredrickson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958, decades after his short, well-paid stint in a Cougars sweater.

How Did Jack Adams Turn the Cougars Into a Playoff Team?

Jack Adams took over as the Cougars' coach and general manager for the 1927–28 season and moved quickly to reshape the roster, acquiring forward Reg Noble and naming him team captain. The rebuild paid off the following year: the 1928–29 Cougars finished third in the NHL's American Division, good enough for the franchise's first-ever playoff berth. Detroit's first NHL playoff run was a short one — the Cougars lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs on a two-game, total-goals series, 7–2 — but reaching the postseason at all marked real progress for a franchise that had been over $80,000 in debt just two seasons earlier. Adams stayed with the organization for parts of four decades, long past the Cougars name itself, and remains one of the most influential builders in the history of Detroit professional hockey.

Why Did the Cougars Name Only Last Four Seasons?

The Cougars name lasted exactly four seasons. In 1930, with the franchise still working to establish itself financially and competitively, ownership rebranded the team, dropping the Cougars name entirely. That new identity lasted only two more seasons before a change in ownership brought a second rename in 1932 — the one the Detroit NHL franchise has carried ever since, and still carries today. We don't use that current name here: it belongs to a team that's still playing under it, and this collection is built entirely around the Cougars-era franchise that came before it.

What Was the Other Detroit Cougars — The NASL Soccer Club?

Decades after the hockey Cougars had disappeared, Detroit fielded a professional soccer team under the exact same nickname. The Detroit Cougars were a charter member of the United Soccer Association in 1967, one of several American cities that season that filled out its roster by importing an entire existing club from overseas rather than building one from scratch — Detroit's 1967 "Cougars" were, in effect, Glentoran F.C. of Northern Ireland playing under a Detroit crest. The team played its home matches at the University of Detroit Stadium and finished the 1967 season 3-6-3.

Why Did the NASL Detroit Cougars Fold After One Season?

When the USA merged with the rival National Professional Soccer League in 1968 to form the new North American Soccer League, the Cougars carried the name over into the new league — but this time with an actual, dedicated roster rather than an imported club. English forward Len Julians took over as player-coach for the 1968 season, but the year was a disaster: Julians resigned in mid-August with the team mired in last place in the NASL's Lakes Division, and Andre Nagy finished out the remaining games. The Cougars closed the season 6-21-4, split their home matches between Tiger Stadium and the University of Detroit Stadium around the Detroit Tigers' baseball schedule, and folded for good once the season ended. Professional outdoor soccer in Detroit under the Cougars name never returned.

Does Anyone Still Remember the 1967 Detroit Cougars Today?

Enough that the connection to Glentoran F.C. has outlived the team itself by decades. In 2016, Detroit City FC — a modern lower-division club with a fiercely loyal local following — hosted Glentoran for a Detroit Cougars tribute match, deliberately reviving the 1967 link between the two clubs for a one-off exhibition. It is a small but telling sign that the strangest chapter of Detroit's soccer history, an entire Northern Irish club playing under a borrowed American crest for one season, still has enough of a following nearly fifty years later to fill a stadium for a tribute game.

What Makes Ours Period-Correct

Construction and accuracy. Sewn-on tackle-twill numbers and lettering where the original build called for it, era-correct fonts and colors, and true-to-original construction — every Detroit Cougars design is checked against period references before it goes live.

Extended Detroit Cougars FAQ

Were there really two different Detroit Cougars teams?

Yes, in two completely different sports, four decades apart. The first was Detroit's original NHL franchise, which played from 1926 to 1930 before a rebrand. The second was a professional soccer club that played in the United Soccer Association in 1967 and the North American Soccer League in 1968.

What happened to the NHL Detroit Cougars?

The franchise was rebranded in 1930. Two years after that, a change in ownership brought a second rename — the identity the Detroit NHL franchise has carried ever since, and still carries today.

Did the Detroit Cougars ever make the playoffs?

Once. The 1928–29 team finished third in the American Division under new coach and general manager Jack Adams, reaching the playoffs for the first time in franchise history before losing a two-game series to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Is the soccer Cougars team related to the hockey Cougars team?

No. They share a nickname and a city, but they are unconnected franchises in different sports, roughly forty years apart, with no shared ownership or roster.

Why was the 1967 Detroit Cougars soccer team actually a team from Northern Ireland?

The 1967 United Soccer Association filled several of its rosters by importing entire existing overseas clubs for the season rather than assembling new American teams from scratch. Detroit's slot that year was filled by Glentoran F.C. of Northern Ireland, playing its games under the Detroit Cougars name and crest.

Are these officially licensed?

No. These are heritage tribute reproductions inspired by two long-defunct Detroit franchises. Royal Retros is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Hockey League, the North American Soccer League, or any team named on this page.

Is this gear connected to any hockey or soccer league or team?

No. Royal Retros is an independent throwback and tribute apparel shop. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any league, team or organization. These are heritage-inspired designs made for fans of defunct and forgotten franchises, and we carry them because nobody else does.

How many Detroit Cougars products does Royal Retros carry?

Three in-stock products spanning both eras — one custom hockey jersey and two T-shirts, one for each sport.

What is the difference between the two Detroit Cougars T-shirts?

The hockey T-shirt is built around the 1926–30 NHL franchise, in Black, Athletic Heather, White and Red. The soccer T-shirt is built around the 1967–68 NASL club, in Black, Athletic Heather, Orange and White. They are separate designs for separate teams.

Shop Related Collections

• Custom Hockey Jerseys — the full custom jersey range across every league we cover.
• Hockey T-Shirts — 145-plus hockey tees across every era we stock.
• Legacy Hockey — 70-plus defunct and relocated hockey franchises.
• Michigan — the wider Michigan sports catalog, hockey and soccer alike.
• NASL — the original North American Soccer League map the 1968 Cougars played in.

The Detroit Cougars at Royal Retros — Heritage Jerseys & Tees for Two Forgotten Detroit Teams. Custom Names & Numbers. Sizes S–5XL. Hockey and Soccer, Four Decades Apart.