What angered me was the condescending tone from the athletic director and the distain he seemed to have for the image, as if it were something "beneath" him, the athletic department, and their (now) winning football program. There was time around 1970 when the football program was so bad the Bearcat Marching Band would play and sing the "Hallelujah Chorus" when a touchdown was scored! (Note to Coach Mel:...thanks for all the wins and making the football program legit. Please remember that alumni are fickle, and it's been 10 year since you won "the big one." Losing the big one consecutive years may make the program the "Buffalo Bills" of Division 2, NCAA Football.)
So I'll say it here, and may send the athletic director a letter complete with words he will understand,...I DREW THAT IMAGE. I am not only an alumni of the University, but am also a professional cartoonist, caricaturist, and illustrator. And I take offense at his comments and attitude.
Let me explain...it is true that NWMSU has used "Bobby Bearcat" as an image and mascot for quite a while--over 7 decades it seems. When I went back to school in the early '80's there to work on an art degree, I was commissioned by then News and Information Director, Bob Henry, to "streamline" the image and give them a "working mechanical" for their files. They didn't have one, and the images of "Bobby" had been essentially cut out of old yearbooks and used over and over again, or had been retraced ham-handedly. The image had become very degraded by the early '80's. I wish I still had my sketches from 27 years ago, because I submitted several different ideas for a logo/image/mascot, including one similar to the "paw print with the N" they would now like to be their "uber-image." I pushed for a unisex image trying to make "bearcat" generic to fit not only the men's athletic department, but also the growing women's athletic department. I never liked the term, "bearkitten," for the ladies. In the end, I was told to do the "Bobby Bearcat," which I did.
And had I been a smarter man, I would've asked for a percentage of that image! They had that it everywhere around Maryville, and even NOW have one with Bobby AND the paw-print N...
A bearcat is not an uncommon mascot. This, more realistic, one is from Boonville High School...
and this "tougher" bearcat mascot is from one of the Calgary Catholic Schools...
I guess what exasperates me is the attitude that somehow a "cartoony/caricature mascot" is somehow demeaning. I wonder if Notre Dame knows this? That their cartoony Irishman with his fists up is something a major university shouldn't be using. Or Arizona State with their cartoony "sun devil?" Or Syracuse U.? Or that cartoony stork the University of Miami uses? You get the drift. And I found 2 cartoony images of Bearcats used by the University of Cincinnati! Don't they realize how stupid that is for them???!!!(He says sarcastically.)
Need I go on?
So to finish up, I have no problem with N.W.M.S.U. phasing out "Bobby Bearcat." It is their right to do. I just don't recall an article about Pepsi replacing their old logo with the new one...by crapping all over the old one, and acting like it was somehow inferior. And if they would want to re-streamline "Bobby's" image to make him up with the times,...GO FOR IT! They would have my blessing. This is also a good lesson to budding illustrator and designers...get a good lawyer and get a percentage.
Time to send a "KMA" letter to an athletic director.
2 comments:
AWESOME. keep us updated
I too am an alumni. Thank You! for Bobby Bearcat. I knew they had changed the logo from one that was unique and identifiable to the "new" generic Bobby, but I didn't know the details. I miss the old logo as it was a very nostalgic symbol to many of us. Maybe someday the marketing genius's at NWMSU will realize the full $$$ value of that sense of nostalgia.
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