The Belleville Senators certainly took the bull by the horns last week in paying tribute to their home city’s former junior hockey club.
On Saturday, March 28, the American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL‘s Ottawa Senators donned the bright yellow sweaters of Belleville’s former Ontario Hockey League team, the Belleville Bulls, as they took on the Manitoba Moose.
Specifically, the Sens wore jerseys resembling those worn by the 2007-08 Bulls squad that won the OHL championship and advanced to the Memorial Cup. The base of the jersey was yellow with a red-and-black full body bull logo on the front. Red and black stripes ran around the waist and the sleeve cuffs. The collars were solid black with black laces at the front.
2007-08 Belleville Bulls jerseyCourtesy AHL / Facebook and Belleville Senators / Facebook
The numbers on the backs and sleeves were red with a black outline, as were the names on the back of the jersey. The right shoulder had a Bulls secondary logo with a cartoon bull over the initials “BB”, while the left shoulder had a Senators secondary logo.
Courtesy AHL / Facebook
Game-used jerseys and pucks were auctioned off online afterwards, with proceeds going to the Belleville Minor Hockey Association. Members of the 2007-08 Bulls team were on hand for the game.
This is the second season the Senators have paid tribute to the Bulls. In December 2024, they sported black jerseys with the Bulls’ cartoon primary logo from 1999. That 1999 team also won the OHL title and played in the Memorial Cup.
Courtesy Belleville Senators / Facebook
The Belleville Bulls played in the OHL from 1981 to 2015, reaching the league finals three times and winning the J. Ross Robertson Trophy once. They played in two Memorial Cups, in 1999 and 2008, but lost in the semifinals both times. In 2015, the Bulls were sold and relocated to Hamilton, taking on the Bulldogs moniker formerly used by the city’s AHL team, which had been relocated to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
In 2017, the Ottawa Senators moved their AHL affiliate from Binghamton, New York, to the CAA Arena in Belleville. Since then, they’ve only made the Calder Cup playoffs twice, and only made it past the first round once.