Athletics studies changes in visual image, mascot

By Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

thletics is moving forward in considering a new visual identity, according to its director Ian McCaw. A campus steering committee was scheduled to meet this week with representatives from a design firm that has been work-ing on the new look for several months, he said.

      Athletics determined it needed help because color and font use among teams is inconsistent, the mascot design is 30 years old, some constituents are unhappy with a white male mascot that carries a firearm and licensing and merchandising revenue have dropped, McCaw said.

      The committee, comprised of departmental staff, Licensing director David Curley and Jay Gladden, assistant professor of Sport Management, hired Phoenix Design Works, a New York firm, to review the department's visual identity and make recommendations.

      "We asked them to look at our current logos and identifiers and update them," McCaw said. "We wanted them to take a look at our whole identity system: colors, fonts, script, mascot. We have consistency issues, and we just need some updating and modernization in that area."

      Another goal, McCaw said, is to generate more revenue from selling UMass products.

      "Our licensing royalties in the early '90s were upwards of about $400,000 a year," he said. "Now they're about $100,000 a year.

      "Our goal would be to double our licensing revenues and increase our merchandise sales, as well."

     The department has spent about $10,000 so far, and the firm has run some preliminary ideas by eight focus groups, covering a number of constituencies, including students and alumni, McCaw said. The groups saw an updated minuteman, as well as an alternative mascot suggestion, the gray wolf. The firm said that the minuteman didn't fully represent student athletes because of its specific gender and ethnicity and that it had illustration limitations.

     "And it has a firearm, whether you want one or don't want one," McCaw said.
The Collegian reported student response to the gray wolf included a concern that it looked too much like the UConn Husky.

      The committee was scheduled to see an updated version of a wolf and a minuteman at its meeting this week. McCaw said Athletics might consider a different animal mascot but is currently focusing on the minuteman and a wolf, though not necessarily a gray wolf, he said.

      McCaw said that the group is considering adding a tertiary color to the maroon and white, possibly black, silver or gold.

      "Hopefully we can have this wrapped up by the end of May," he said.