School Logo History/Backstory

Most schools didn’t have mascots until the 1930’s. Bulldogs was chosen for the Milton-Union teams because they were said to be as tenacious as a bulldog on the field. That was around 1945. It’s a story I was told by my mother who graduated from Milton-Union in 1954.
Centerville has an original mascot but Northmont’s Thunderbolt is an original as well. The basketball teams at Phillipsburg, one of the many school districts consolidated into Northmont, were called
Thunderbolts due to being so fast on the basketball court. The name stuck instead of Randolph’s Bobcat. They used Phillipsburg’s mascot and Randolph’s colors, green and white. Gold and black have been added since as alternate colors.
 
St. Ignatius teams were the Golden Tornado until 1939, when the name was changed to Wildcats. The paw print on the side of the helmet appeared in the 80's.
 
Despite Mogadore's rich football tradition, their helmets have changed quite often. I can remember 15 or 20 in 40+ years of watching. Block M / Wildcat Head / Paw Print / Cats ... etc ...
 
See, I like Golden Tornado just for the pure originality of it.

I've always liked Golden Gales for Lancaster High School for similar reasons. Most of their logos etc. use a tornado.

Similar to St. Ignatius, St. X had a name change, too. They were originally the Conquistadors, but then eventually changed names when they had a QB and offense that had a strong long passing game, where they threw a lot of "bombs." That's the story I was told by a St. X grad at least.

I think Conquistadors would not have lasted the test time had it not changed when it did.
 
Well Green has the colors of orange and black. Several people have tried hard to incorporate green into their colors, similar to Miami Hurricanes.
I thought that'd look sharp. Green went with their colors because they were given some orange and black hand me downs from Massillon when they started their football program. The die hard alumni will not let the orange and black be changed. When we play a team with green uni's in basketball the refs will say out of bounds greens ball, and both teams look confused as to who's ball it is.
 
Well Green has the colors of orange and black. Several people have tried hard to incorporate green into their colors, similar to Miami Hurricanes.
I thought that'd look sharp. Green went with their colors because they were given some orange and black hand me downs from Massillon when they started their football program. The die hard alumni will not let the orange and black be changed. When we play a team with green uni's in basketball the refs will say out of bounds greens ball, and both teams look confused as to who's ball it is.

Kind of a similar situation to Columbia HS, you would think they would use Columbia Blue as a school color.
 
In the early days at St. Ed's, the student body voted on "Eagles." According to the history of the school, "Positive Values", the unofficial mascot after a few months of existence was the "Irish." "The official reason given by Student Council was that 'it suggests a particular national group, therefore lacking universality." They held a poll for a new nickname with the choices of Cubs, Regents, Crusaders, Warriors, Arrows and Eagles. The colors were already green and gold and the band had picked a fight song that began with "On You Golden Eagles" but became "On You Mighty Eagles."

As for a logo, they had variations of the animal after that poll. The oval E was adopted on the side of the football helmets in 1969. It was with a green E and a white background. That served as a main logo from then until the late 1970s when legendary wrestling coach Howard Ferguson took over. He introduced a pyramid E with an eagle at the top of it, the football helmets were also changed to dark green with numbers on them, this only lasted a couple of seasons before they reverted back to the green oval E with a white background. In the early 90s they began to phase out the pyramid E and lost the oval. The helmets went to a script Eagles much like the Florida Gators and they subbed out the pyramid E with an Eagle head to a block E with an Eagle head. When Gibbons took over in 1999, the helmets changed to a simple block E and the main logo of the school was that with an Eagle head. In 2002, the helmets went for what they are now, the oval E with a white E and green background. Sometime in the late 2000s the school pretty much adopted that as their official logo in all things.
 
Despite Mogadore's rich football tradition, their helmets have changed quite often. I can remember 15 or 20 in 40+ years of watching. Block M / Wildcat Head / Paw Print / Cats ... etc ...
Milton has changed quite a bit. Back in the 70s we had the same “M” that Moeller had. So they changed to no decal for many years. Them in the late 80s they used a paw print, MU block letters, “Bulldogs” blocked like the Giants and many other variations on the “M”. I like no logo with stripes like Penn State, OSU, etc.
 
In the early days at St. Ed's, the student body voted on "Eagles." According to the history of the school, "Positive Values", the unofficial mascot after a few months of existence was the "Irish." "The official reason given by Student Council was that 'it suggests a particular national group, therefore lacking universality." They held a poll for a new nickname with the choices of Cubs, Regents, Crusaders, Warriors, Arrows and Eagles. The colors were already green and gold and the band had picked a fight song that began with "On You Golden Eagles" but became "On You Mighty Eagles."

As for a logo, they had variations of the animal after that poll. The oval E was adopted on the side of the football helmets in 1969. It was with a green E and a white background. That served as a main logo from then until the late 1970s when legendary wrestling coach Howard Ferguson took over. He introduced a pyramid E with an eagle at the top of it, the football helmets were also changed to dark green with numbers on them, this only lasted a couple of seasons before they reverted back to the green oval E with a white background. In the early 90s they began to phase out the pyramid E and lost the oval. The helmets went to a script Eagles much like the Florida Gators and they subbed out the pyramid E with an Eagle head to a block E with an Eagle head. When Gibbons took over in 1999, the helmets changed to a simple block E and the main logo of the school was that with an Eagle head. In 2002, the helmets went for what they are now, the oval E with a white E and green background. Sometime in the late 2000s the school pretty much adopted that as their official logo in all things.

Great backstory.

Have you ever heard any grumblings about the "E" and general aesthetic of the football unis being a knock off of the Green Bay Packers?

I'm sure it's been a never-ending struggle also for most people to realize the school's name is St. Edward, not St. Edwards.

On a personal note, we enjoyed sitting next to some St. Ed fans (a father and his grown son) during the state championship game a few years ago. They ended up sitting on the Colerain side since the father was wheelchair bound and couldn't find a place for him with good views on the home side of the stadium. Very friendly and complimentary.
 
Great backstory.

Have you ever heard any grumblings about the "E" and general aesthetic of the football unis being a knock off of the Green Bay Packers?

I'm sure it's been a never-ending struggle also for most people to realize the school's name is St. Edward, not St. Edwards.

On a personal note, we enjoyed sitting next to some St. Ed fans (a father and his grown son) during the state championship game a few years ago. They ended up sitting on the Colerain side since the father was wheelchair bound and couldn't find a place for him with good views on the home side of the stadium. Very friendly and complimentary.

I haven't heard anything about it being a knock off no. My guess would be because there are so many high schools that have very similar logos to colleges or pro teams that people usually just let it be. The name mispronouncing just happens. Yes, we are St. Edward but then go by St. Ed's or Ed's, in some ways we create that problem.
 
Cleveland St.Joseph/VASJ main logo history

Backstory: When the school opened, the colors were picked to be Columbia blue, red, and white. When the time came, the student body picked Vikings due to the school being built right on Lake Erie. When St.Joes merged with their sister school Villa Angela Academy in the fall of 1990. The majority of the student body voted to keep the Vikings mascot, logos, and colors. The other options were to incorporate the Skylark nickname and the green and gold colors, or vote for a completely new nickname and colors.

Here are the logos used by the school.

St.Joseph HS School Emblem used from 1950-1990. (Taken from cover of 1966 year book found online)
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Villa Angela-St.Joseph HS school emblem used from 1990-Present.
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Viking Head Used from the 1950’s-2004
Logo still used at mid court in the Purple Palace
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Running Viking used in late 1980’s-2004
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There was a time in the early 80’s this logo was used on some of gym uniforms and gym bags. And has made a reappearance on the basketball teams warmup jackets back in either 2014 or 15 but with a few minor tweaks to the logo.
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Updated Viking Head used from 2005-2007 as primary logo.
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Side facing Viking used from 2003-2010, primary from 2007-2010. Retired by the school after the 09-10 school year.
Still used on flag used by the football team donated in 2003 by the late VASJ Grandma. (Only found BW version)
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Updated Viking Head made primary logo in 2010 up until 2016. Still used as an alternate logo. 68DC3A6E-833B-49FD-9BED-ABFFB2084A79.png
Viking V used as primary logo from 2017-2018. Used as an alternate seen on school vans, social media, and letterheads in early 2010’s.
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Updated Viking V with script. Used from 2018-Present.
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Viking horn logo used from its inception in 1979-Present originally introduced on the football helmets. Has appeared on more athletic uniforms and apparel recently in some color variation. Has been helmet logo since 79 with different variations used recently. I’ll post the helmet history in a separate post.
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St.Joseph/VASJ’s full helmet history ranging from the programs inception under Coach Gutbrod in 1950 up until 1978 via VASJ’s athletic history book “Storming the Erie Shores”.
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Helmet introduced in 1979 and used until 2015. The helmet was a classic gloss finish with red horns on both sides and Columbia blue trim. Won the 89 DII state title and a D-IV runner up finish in 2003 using this design. (Signs are pointing to this design being brought back)
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The programs helmet was returned to the Columbia blue shell for the first time since 1978 in 2016 along with new Under Armour uniforms. The finish was matte and the horns were white with a red trim. Only used for one season.
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The Columbia blue helmet was refinished in 2017 to have a glossy Columbia blue finish with a red splash on the back of the helmet. The horns returned to red but with a white trim instead. Once again used for a single season.
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For the first time since 2015, VASJ returned to using the classic white helmets , but with a twist. The horns returned to the classic red with blue trim and were for the first time metallic decals. A blue wedge was added to the back of the white helmet to add a modern flair to the classic look. For the 3rd straight season, this look lasted one season.
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2019 saw changes to the football program, Bill Sowers was out after two seasons, and Elvis Grbac returned to the school as the new AD and HC. The helmets received their 4th tweak in 4 years with this one being less drastic. The majority of the shell remained white but faded to Columbia blue towards the bottom half. Some helmets ordered for underclassmen were solid white hinting at the return of the all white shell with red horns. The horns also returned to their original look used from 1979-2015. Considering the trend. Won’t be surprised to see solid white helmets for 2020.
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Here is a cool article on some of the nicknames from around the state and where they originated.

 
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You got to love a helmet that has "Kill" on the side of it, I wonder what the OHSAA would think of this in the era of "woke" culture?

The famed mentality of Coach Gutbrod. I have a shirt from Bill Gutbrod night that was held my sophomore year of HS and I had the honor of meeting coach when I was freshman at Joes.
 
I was told Springfield Catholic was not always the "Irish?"
That's correct. My school played them in football and basketball back in the late '40s into the early '50s, and the nickname mentioned in the newspaper was the "Tornadoes."

Found this blurb in a Dayton Daily News article that was written last summer:
"Along the way the Tornadoes – the nickname was dropped in 1979 and the unofficial Irish moniker became official — "
 
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That's correct. My school played them in football and basketball back in the late '40s into the early '50s, and the nickname mentioned in the newspaper was the "Tornadoes."

Found this blurb in a Dayton Daily News article that was written last summer:
"Along the way the Tornadoes – the nickname was dropped in 1979 and the unofficial Irish moniker became official — "
I would be very surprised if there wasn’t some tie-in between Springfield CC’s “tornadoes” mascot and Grantland Rice’s coined phrase “South Bend Cyclone” given the obvious overlaps with Notre Dame.
 
As far as Canton CC's "Crusaders" nickname is concerned, all I've seen is that the old coed parish HS at Canton St. John was referred to as the "Irish" in the newspaper in addition to more informal nicknames like the "Saints" and the "Johnnies." At the 1938 football banquet, the coach unveiled the new "Crusaders" nickname. It stuck at St. John and was carried over when St. John merged with the all-female Mt. Marie to create Canton CC.
 
I think Springfield Township (Springfield Ohio, Shawnee) cam into fruition by over crowding at Tecumceh and Greenon from what I was told.
 
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