The California Redwoods was introduced as the team name for San Francisco’s United Football League franchise at a press conference Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at AT&T Park, where the team will play its home games.

UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue and team owner Paul Pelosi announced the team name and uniforms. Over 35,000 names were submitted, including the Rockfish as previously rumored, but the Redwoods was selected because as Huyghue noted, “the Redwoods, large, strong trees native to California, symbolize many traits that the UFL and the California franchise plan to embody. The Redwoods and the UFL are reaching for the stars and are eco-friendly.”

Absent was a team logo, but one will be created before the season starts. The official team colors for the Redwoods were based on the league’s shield logo that has consists of green, blue, white and silver. All four UFL teams will have variations of these four colors in their respective uniforms for the “Premiere” season. Pelosi mentioned that the Redwoods would have new uniforms for their second season.

“The inspiration for the “Premiere” season uniform design comes directly from the UFL shield and its foundation colors which represent “green grass”, “blue sky” and silver for innovation,” said uniform creator Ron Caruso through the league’s official press release. “Throughout the uniforms, we used the dimensional “arc” of the shield on the chest and supporting “arcs” on the sleeves and pants. The unique font of the numbers reinforces the shield’s classic bold typeface with angles and dimensional treatments conveying depth and motion. The four uniform designs (one for each team) work together in a unified branded system, providing manufacturing efficiencies while allowing each team to retain its own unique and differentiated character.”

A couple of notes about the Redwoods’ three-game home schedule. If the San Francisco Giants make the playoffs and need to play a game on the same day as the Redwoods’ home opener on October 17 against New York, the game will be played Spartan Stadium in San Jose. Additionally, the team’s game on November 12 against the Las Vegas Locomotives has been moved to Saturday so not to conflict with the San Francisco 49ers game that will be played that night.