St. Vincent College unveiled a new athletics logo Monday in front of hundreds of students, faculty and coaches at a ceremony at Carey Center, and the school plans to begin displaying it publicly in the fall.
The logo features a fiercer-looking Bearcat — the school's mascot — which was introduced by Benediction Brother Norman W. Hipps, president of St. Vincent College.
“It's a new beginning to an old tradition,” Hipps said. “The mascot has been around since 1924. If you looked at the old Bearcat logos, they were kind of laid-back. This one is a little more tenacious. It has a little edge to it.”
Judging from the chatter and applause, the new logo was a hit.
“I like it a lot,” St. Vincent senior baseball player Steve Janik said. “It's looks a little meaner, and that's what you want a mascot to look like. I liked that old logo, but you want a mascot to be fierce. This looks pretty good.”
It was a portion of the student body that asked school officials to look into refreshing the current logo, a bear paw. Work started in the fall, and St. Vincent art director George Fetkovich designed the new logo. He looked at pictures of the animal's face, and the first thing he noticed were rounded ears.
The eyes of the new Bearcat logo are piercing and the opened mouth shows imposing teeth.
“There are other schools that have the Bearcat logo, and they've used pointed ears,” Fetkovich said. “Ours looks more authentic. This was a group effort with the administration and athletic department. We also used a New York City branding company to advise us. They didn't change much.”
SEM branding does professional teams and colleges. Its designs include those of the NBA Atlanta Hawks and the University of Kentucky Wildcats.
“It's nice to see the people around campus care about the new logo,” St. Vincent basketball player Dan Sinwell said. “It's an exciting time for the college. They wanted to bring in a new look.”
Suzanne English, vice president of marketing and communications, said: “We worked through a couple of different options, and we tested them with both alumni and students. With the help of SEM, we were able to narrow it down and focus on something that brought appeal.”
Paul Schofield is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at pschofield@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Schofield_Trib.
