The College of William & Mary Tribe has removed the two feathers from its athletic logos in accordance with the ruling from the think tank known as the NCAA. The snipping of the two feathers is uncannily symbolic of the emasculation of the college and its sports insignia. Myles Brand took us to get "tutored," as a Gary Larson dog once mocked, and what's left of the Tribe logo is as docile and sleepy as a fixed pup. Enjoy the results at right.
William & Mary replaces logo to remove feathers
Associated Press
© December 7, 2007
WILLIAMSBURG
The College of William and Mary has a new logo that sheds the two feathers that made the NCAA deem its previous athletic logo offensive because of its stereotypical reference to American Indians.
The logo revealed Thursday updates the college's familiar "W&M" monogram and uses the school's more traditional colors of green and gold instead of the more recent green and yellow. The logo, in four similar designs, will be used not just by the athletic department but on business cards, stationary and other items.
In 2004, the NCAA began reviewing American Indian-themed mascots, nicknames and logos used by more than 30 schools to see if they could be considered "hostile and abusive."
Last year, the NCAA ruled that William and Mary could keep its Tribe nickname but could not display its athletic logo with feathers at NCAA championship events or host NCAA tournament games where the logo would be shown.
After the school lost an appeal, it turned to a committee including faculty, staff, students and alumni to develop a new design.
"The passing months have given us no greater esteem for the NCAA's misguided decision to prohibit the feathers in our past logo," President Gene R. Nichol said in a statement. But he said he was pleased with the new design.
The committee found that in addition to the athletic logo, there were 12 different marks registered as symbols representing the college, said Sam Sadler, vice president for student affairs and committee chairman.
Its goal was to comply with the NCAA ruling and pick a design that could bring consistency to the symbols, Sadler said.
The committee reviewed roughly 600 designs but kept coming back to one already in use: a 
"W" and "M" separated by an ampersand.
The committee enlisted Phoenix Design Works, a New York company with experience in designing school logos, for help in updating that design. Committee member Connie Desaulniers, a 1975 W&M graduate and noted Williamsburg artist, drew the smaller ampersand that is incorporated in the new design.
Hiring Phoenix cost about $7,000, paid for by private funds, school spokesman Brian Whitson said. He said he did not have an estimate for what it will cost to incorporate the new design across campus."
The College of William & Mary Tribe has removed the two feathers from its athletic logos in accordance with the ruling from the think tank known as the NCAA. The snipping of the two feathers is uncannily symbolic of the emasculation of the college and its sports insignia. Myles Brand took us to get "tutored," as a Gary Larson dog once mocked, and what's left of the Tribe logo is as docile and sleepy as a fixed pup. Enjoy the results at right.
so they paid $7,000 for a new ampersand. where do i sign up for that gig? i can ampersand like a motherfucker.
ReplyDeleteThe feathers really made it work. I need to dig up some gear with the old logo.
ReplyDeleteThose new logos are just awful. They're so plain that we might as well just go with a standard font like Times New Roman with no decoration or art at all.
ReplyDeleteWhatever they paid was too much.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the Gheorghe post from a couple of weeks ago on the CAA mascots/logos, you'll see that the significance of each logo is the mascot. Now that Tribe has been de-Indianed (to go the un-PC route), there is nothing they can put in the logo other than the name or abbreviation of the school. They might as well change the mascot entirely, which is what the NCAA was going for all along. This really is a neuter-job.
The William & Mary Colonials
(Insert goofy cartoon guy in a tri-cornered hat eating a Delly sandwich and giving balloon lettered NCAA the finger.)
I'm surprised they never used one of the Pi Lam posters from the Tri Delt Decathlons.
ReplyDeleteI really think either one of these would've worked:
"Hey Tri-Delts: We'll beat them on the field and you can beat us off."
OR
"If we're not on top, we'll come from behind."
Tragedy.
Just picked up a t-shirt and a hat from the campus shop. Long live the feathers.
ReplyDeletejerry was so pissed that he drove all the way to williamsburg. nice.
ReplyDeletethat's the way i'll retell this story, anyway.
600 designs? I say four:
ReplyDelete1. Ampersand
2. No ampersand
3. Just WM
4. Write out ALL the letters.
I look at that logo and think someone was doing the dishes last night after dinner and realized "holy crap, that logo deadline is tomorrow!"
just wrote this over at mlc, but i'm in a cross-promotional mood:
ReplyDeleteNASHVILLE - The Baseball Writers' Association of America voted ths morning to approve a resolution where starting in 2013 all contracts that have financial terms attached to major awards will not be eligible for consideration for that award.The resolution stems from Curt Schilling's new contract were he received a $1 million bonus for at least one Cy Young vote. The Baseball Writers Association memebership votes on the annual awards. The BBWAA will also notify the Major League Players' Association and Major League Baseball of its decision. A committee will discuss the issue with both bodies at a future date.
From one absurdity to another this offseason. We were prepared to come in here guns blazing at the irrationality of this decision, but SoSH poster glennhoffmania said it so much better than we were planning to:
"So basically the writers are saying, we can't be trusted to vote objectively and one of us may either let personal bias affect judgment or possibly even take a bribe. That's heartening."
Yup. Sounds about right. Baseball writers have really covered themselves in glory over the past several years, completely whiffing (morally, ethically, and journalistically) on the steroids story before jumping on Barry Bonds with two feet to make up for it (not that Bonds was undeserving of the pummeling, but he wasn't the only one). This action truly recognizes their lack of integrity, and for that, we're thankful.
mgl, how could you? you linked to the daily press story on the tribe logo instead of g:tb? after all we've done for...okay, nevermind.
ReplyDeleteMea culpa, rob. It is now fixed as it should have originally read.
ReplyDeleteI learned in Bible school when I was eight that even Jesus dropped the cross three times. Can I get a mully?
but of course- we're big believers in the mulligan. g:tb carries no grudges. except against bill o'reilly. we hate that guy.
ReplyDeletewhat the heck happened to mason today?
that tennessee/ohio state game last night was ridiculous. did not see that coming.
ReplyDeleteand it looks like wvu's recovered from that pants-wetting against pitt.
laird hamilton, badass:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sportingnews.com/blog/TheSportingBlog/122865?rss=1
he tore the arm off his wetsuit to make a tourniquet? i've never worn a wetsuit, but that would seem to require a righteous amount of strength. and then he swam 15 minutes in 80-foot surf to get to a tow vehicle to save his buddy's life. yeah, we're the same species.
So now I guess you're a tribe of... what? Accountants?
ReplyDelete