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TuesD3y Spotlight: Wesley College

This week’s TuesD3y spotlight shines on Wesley College. Wesley College is a private liberal arts college in Dover, Delaware, established in 1873. Their football program competes in the New Jersey Athletic Conference surrounding the New York City area.

Wesley competes as the wolverines, which already creates a branding obstacle given that most people will think of “That Team Up North” when they hear the moniker. However, the reason we have chosen Wesley for our spotlight is how well they break from this image and create their own identity.

Image Courtesy of scorestream.com

The Wesley Wolverine logo is simple but striking. The two different blues go well together (similar to the URI rams). The logo itself is menacing, and shows clear motion with its comet-like shape.

One of my biggest qualms with small schools is that they often have great logos, but for no reason leave them off the helmet in place of numbers or a bland, boiler plate design. The Wolverines do not fall for this trap; they brandish this logo in all its glory.

Image Courtesy of minorleaguesportsreport.com

The helmets aren’t the only reason we love these uniforms so much. The Wolverines have such a pleasant shade of navy, and the shoulder stripes and block letters create a bold, professional look.

Image Courtesy gowesleyathletics.com

Wesley has also used these road whites. I don’t care for them as much as the home blues, but they do their job. I do like the light blue outlines on the numbers. They go especially well with the light blue gloves.

Wesley football had a great season this year, making it to the NCAA D3 playoffs. After a dominant win against Rensselaer in the first round, the Wolverines were eliminated by Brockport St. in the second round.

Image Courtesy of democratandchronicle.com

Wesley also had two alumni sign NFL contracts this year.

Check out last week’s D3 spotlight with University of Dubuque!

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Wolverines, Wildcats and Wild Kits

Image Courtesy of foxnews.com

Last night marked the conclusion of a 2018’s incredible March Madness tournament, with Villanova taking the title in a dominant victory over the Michigan.

But, Divincenzo’s incredible performance and the three’s the Wildcats drained all night weren’t the only things that caught our attention. The uniforms in this match up were crisp, captivating and full of details, something that doesn’t happen often with basketball kits.

Villanova:

Image Courtesy of usatoday.com

As the highest seed in the match up Nova got to wear their home jerseys. I love the Wildcats away uniforms as well, but I’m glad we got to see these last night. The light blue outline on the dark blue text always looks fantastic, and the colors pop even more on the blank canvas of the white jerseys.

Image Courtesy of si.com

My absolute favorite part of these uniforms, however, was on the shorts. Nova brought back their retro Wildcat V logo, and I couldn’t be happier.

Image Courtesy of pinterest.com

Those who follow this blog know I love throwback looks and when retro logos make an appearance, like Duke’s retro-Devil. Nova’s is no exception; how could you not love that ragged lookin’ cat? Plus, the bold V is a neat icon. Louisville also features a retro logo on their basketball shorts, a trend I think more schools should adopt.

As much as I loved these uniforms, they weren’t the star of the night. That goes to the Wolverines.

Michigan:

Image Courtesy of freep.com

Although Michigan’s on-the-court performance couldn’t keep up with Villanova, I think these uniforms outpaced almost all others this tournament. Dark blue is hard to nail, but these jerseys were bold and royal. The white piping on the edges frames them well, too. The best feature of these kits, however, is far and beyond the lettering.

Image Courtesy of freep.com

The reflective maize numbers and letters stood out under the stadium lights without being too obnoxious. The deep blue surrounding them made them even brighter. Plus, the font used for the names on the back was the perfect simple style to complete this classic look. This jersey could be used 20 years from now or 20 years ago and would still stand out as a classic. I haven’t seen many other basketball jerseys that come close to being this timeless.

Agree? Disagree? Have a favorite tournament jersey you’d care to share? Post in the comments below.

The UCF Pegasus: Why It Isn’t Used In Athletics

Image Courtesy of ucf.edu

Those familiar with UCF know that their academic branding, like many other schools, is kept entirely separate from their athletics branding. However, more and more universities are using the same logos for both their athletics department and academics in an attempt to unify branding. So, why does UCF fiercely separate their iconic Pegasus from their college football team?

To answer this question, let’s start with some history. UCF was founded in 1963 as Florida Technological University. They are a space-grant university, funded by the state with the intention of educating students to work in the for our nation’s space program.

Thus, a lot of the university’s early branding has connections with NASA and space travel. The Pegasus itself was selected in 1968 when the University opened. According to the press release, the logo was chosen because it was “the mythological winged horse of the muses. [It] carried their hopes, their inspirations, and their poetry into the skies.”

Image Courtesy of ucf.edu

However, when the school needed a mascot, the Pegasus wasn’t chosen. Instead, FTU went with the “Citronaut,” an adorable orange character (who deserves his own post) that combined Florida’s histories with oranges and space.

Image Courtesy of wikipedia.org

Unfortunately, UCF’s lovable, tangy branding was not here to stay. When it came time to choose an official mascot for athletics in 1970, UCF went with the “Knights of Pegasus.” While a pretty cool name, it was indeed a mouthful. UCF transitioned to the “Golden Knights” to try and boost merchandise sales in 1993, and then down to just “Knights” in 2007 as part of a department-wide rebranding.

So, why wasn’t the Pegasus ever chosen during all these years of identity changes? The short answer is, the University wants to keep the Pegasus as a symbol of high academic achievement and not dilute it by using it for sports. The administration places great value on the academic seal and doesn’t want it tied to the school’s teams.

That being said, this resolve appears to be fading away. Last year, UCF wore some fantastic space themed uniforms for the War on I4 Rivalry game.

Image Courtesy of @UCF_Equipment on Twitter

Yup, that’s right. The Pegasus made it onto the shoulder, even if it’s very subtle. The Equipment Room stated that it was used to tie in UCF’s history with sending students to the space program, so it still carried academic meaning. But it was nice to see this great logo make an appearance.

The Pegasus constellation also made the “mission” patches and appeared on the helmet stripe.

Image Courtesy of ucf.edu

The horse that the UCF Knight rides on to the field before games is also named Pegasus, one of the other few connections to the mythical animal used for the football team.

Image Courtesy of ucf.edu

So, does the Pegasus stand a chance to become a component of future alternate uniforms? My guess would be no. I think the University really is determined to keep this an academic seal, and only featured it on the I4 kits because of the space program theme.

It’s a shame, because I think this is a great seal that would look fantastic on the side of UCF’s helmets for a game each season, or even as a permanent shoulder badge. The Pegasus carries important meaning for the school, but I think that’s a reason it should be on uniforms, not separated from them.

Agree? Disagree? Leave your thoughts below!