HPU Athletics unveils new secondary logo for 2017-18 season
By Brett Deresinski
When students returned to campus for the 2017-18 school year, they noticed a plethora of new changes, from the completed Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy and Congdon School of Health and Sciences, to the new fountains near the Wanek Center, to the redesigned interior of the Great Day Bakery.
One of these subtle, yet important changes came in the athletics department, when on August 1, High Point University Athletics unveiled their new secondary logo, which can be seen on player uniforms, merchandise, and flags around the athletic fields. For Dan Hauser, the HPU Athletics Director, this was a change that was long overdue.
“When I looked at the secondary mark of the Panther, I thought that it had some areas where it could be strengthened and be a little bit cleaner,” stated Hauser. “It looked a little dated in my mind and that got my mind heading down the path of change.”
While the new logo was officially unveiled on August 1, the process for designing this logo was more than 18 months in the making. Hauser and his team were responsible for gaining approval from the university to begin this process. Once Hauser and his team were given the green light, they began looking at every single cat-themed logo in professional athletics and at the Division I level. There was a desire to be as simplistic as possible, replacing the old Panther logo with one that only featured HPU’s signature purple and white colors, adding an extra layer of challenge.
HPU decided to enlist the services of Joe Bosack & Company for the design, a company that had experience working with collegiate and professional teams, including Mississippi State and Xavier, and the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League. The company also had experience redesigning logos in the Big South Conference, redesigning Longwood’s logo in 2014 and redesigning Radford’s logo in 2016.
Following a lengthy process to get the logo approved, including final edits being made to the logo, and making sure that all staff members were on board with the redesign, the process was finally complete towards the end of the 2016-17 school year. Even though the logo was finished before the school year was over, Hauser and his team decided to wait until August to launch it, so as to avoid conflicting with graduation.
On June 1, HPU announced a seven-year partnership with Adidas to become the official apparel of HPU Athletics. As part of this partnership, athletes will wear the new logo on game uniforms in a secondary placement, such as on their sleeves, back, or shorts.
Despite the new logo being featured prominently across campus, Hauser stresses that the new secondary logo is not meant to draw attention away from the primary logo.
“Nothing will ever take the place of that HPU logo,” stated Hauser. “That’s just like the Michigan ‘M’. We’re going to keep that logo and stand behind that logo. This will strengthen the High Point brand and add a second identifier.”
The new logo features a panther head in purple with a white outline of an eye, ear, mouth, nose, and two whiskers. Shirts with the new logo were handed out to students during the first week of school, and the logo was seen in competitive action for the first time on August 25 during a doubleheader involving the men’s and women’s soccer teams. The new secondary logo will continue to be a staple for the foreseeable future, both on campus and during athletic events.
