C-USA Stories: Southern Miss to undergo logo change
Welcome to our first of what we hope to be many “C-USA Stories” features, in which we will bring you up to speed on some interesting news and/or notes on teams from around the conference to get you better acquainted with them as WKU fans.
And, what a fitting way to start, than with a bit of an odd one – a three judge panel inside the United States Patent and Trademark Office ruled by a 2-1 vote in 2011 that, due to “the likelihood of confusion,” between Southern Mississippi’s logo and the Iowa Hawkeye logo, the former of the two will undergo a logo change.
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Wait, what? the two logos, while yes they are both yellow birds, look nothing alike. Observe:
Iowa’s logo, as you can tell, is rather minimalist and looks straight from the 60’s or something, which gives it all of it’s charm. The USM logo, which has been around since 2002, is much more detailed, and much more like an eagle than the parrot looking Iowa logo.
Honestly, I had been unaware that Iowa was worried about the confusion and took this topic to the courts, but it does make sense as to why USM uses their wordmark logo not only in their twitter accounts, but also as the midfield logo at their football field.
Band playing on the field prior to game. #SMTTT pic.twitter.com/hAMulKDR1F
— Southern Miss Football (@SouthernMissFB) September 6, 2014
While I bet you the USM higher-ups aren’t necessarily thrilled with having to change their logo (random thought – anyone happen to know if the Eagle has a name? Like UCONN’s Jonathan the Huskie?), athletic director Bill McGillis is looking on the bright side nonetheless.
"We’re calling it an evolution, not a revolution. We want to keep most of the features of the current logo, but modified enough to get trademarked. I’ve met with Iowa personally and shared with them the direction that we’re heading. They’ve been very helpful, at least recently, in this process."
So, yay, Southern Miss is bowing to a lower-tier Big 10 school and a power five school is getting exactly what they want. I may be sounding a little too pessimistic, but seriously, am I the only one who doesn’t ever get confused with the two? Our twitter pal @SouthernMiss444 shared a possible new design for the Golden Eagles.
That’s actually not a bad idea. And, I enjoy logo changes almost more than anyone, but the reason here is just annoying and I don’t like it. While we’re at it, should ULM change their logo? It looks an awful lot like USM’s…(in the same way USM and Iowa are similar.)
So, what do you think about all of this? Do you see any confusion between the two logos? Does it irk you as much as it irks me? Let us know below in a comment or on twitter @WaveTheRedTowel.