ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Meet Dick Moots. He is the man behind the beloved Albuquerque Dukes logo.

Moots thinks that fun-loving look of the conquistador, instead of the typical animal on the logos of today, makes it stand out.

“Mind you, all of this was done on a drawing board. There was no digital computer or graphics type stuff,” Moots said.

In 1970, Moots started working for the Double-A team known at the time as the Albuquerque Dodgers. Two years later, the Los Angeles Dodgers moved their Triple-A team to Albuquerque.

That is when the general manager of the team thought it was time to change things up with a new logo.

While they were making these changes, a local newspaper reporter suggested fans decide what to name the team.

Moots recalled the questionnaire asked fans, “Would you rather have it named Dukes or Dodgers?” The questionnaire went out for several weeks with the public deciding on the Dukes.

“So he needed a logo and he called me and he says, ‘Dick, I can’t believe it,’ he says, ‘but the fans here would want the name Dukes for the team.’ He’s like, ‘I need a logo and I need it fast.’,” Moots said.

All they asked was for the logo to have a conquistador. The conquistador calls back to the city’s Spanish origins. Albuquerque is named after Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, the 10th Duke of Alburquerque.

“I went to the museum, [as] I didn’t have enough history coming from Chicago. I didn’t know much about what they looked like. So I went to the museum and made some sketches as to what it could be like. And we didn’t consider anything else, really,” Moots said.

Moots said he could’ve never imagined the drawing being this big, over 50 years after he came up with it.

“People ask me every once in a while, ‘have you dreamed that it would be such an iconic symbol for the city?’ I never dreamed it would be, but I’m delighted that it is,” he said.

Moots said he has seen the logo on bumper stickers, shirts, hats and even tattoos. He says it’s nice to know he made a little piece of history in New Mexico.