(09-18-2022 12:31 AM)markbrindley Wrote: The O and the wings are always present in one form or another, but everything else changes weekly if not more often. Nothing wrong with that and it creates a lot of excitement as people wait to see what will appear before every game.
But that's the point, the O and the wings are the constants that link all the Oregon unis back to the trademarks. So whatever uniform they wear, the trademarks are still there.
Most schools seem to have two reliable trademarks. TexasU has the "UT" and the stylized longhorn (and the hook-em hand signal to go with it), Notre Dame has "ND" and the leprechaun, Southern Cal has "SC" and Tommy Trojan, Texas Tech has "TT" and the masked rider, Georgia has the "G" inside a football and UGA, Bama has the script "A" and the elephant, Tennessee has the orange "T" and the checkerboard end zone, Ohio State has the all-caps "Ohio State" and Brutus, Michigan has the "M" and the helmets, and so forth. Most schools seem to have two that endure. Auburn even has three, the interlocking "AU", the war eagle, and the tiger. I frankly think that, particularly being in a conference that already has two other Tigers (LSU and Mizzou), Auburn should strongly consider adopting the War Eagle as its mascot (also particularly because of the work with raptors that its ag school is doing) and dropping the tiger. The pregame flight of the eagle (typically one rehabbed at the ag school) into the stadium is particularly electric.
One problem is that the most effective trademarks arise from years when the programs have had sustained success and Rice hasn't really enjoyed much sustained success, so it has kept changing the look. Hey, change the logo, that might work. Bo Hagan, incidentally, tried to do an "R" inside a football, but G's fit into footballs a lot better than R's do, not to mention that his time was not a time of much success.
It seems to me that the two symbols most associated with Rice are the wings (from the time of the most recent sustained football success, the 1990s under Fred and Ken, and also goes with the hand signal) and the OE "R" (from the most successful period for any Rice sport ever, baseball under Wayne). For football, I would like to see the wings on the helmets and the OE "R" on top of the shoulders of its jerseys. I would prefer blue with white trim or white with blue trim for jerseys, gray/silver pants, and gray/silver helmets ("Old Gray Bonnet") with blue wings, but with the two trademarks to tie the uniforms together, they could do anything they want to vary the look for special occasions and not lose the branding.
Rice's changes have not preserved any trademarks. In particular, the JK changes to all-caps modern font "RICE OWLS" and the chicken owl have come at the expense of the two most lasting trademarks (the OE "R" and the wings) that Rice has had. Pick a trademark or two (I have made my suggestions, others may differ) and incorporate them into everything you do.
