As a connoisseur of fine graphic design, I have been merrily collecting the logos for the 10 teams involved in this year's NAIA World Series at Lewiston. These will all eventually show up in the pages of the Tribune's Series Extra publications, but I thought I'd give online readers an early taste of what's to come.
Since they've all played in the Series in recent years, six teams' logos were already squirreled away in our archives — they are Lewis-Clark State, Oklahoma City University, Lee, Embry-Riddle, Tennessee Wesleyan and LSU Shreveport. But four schools — Point Park, College of Idaho, Rogers State and South Carolina Beaufort — had not been here, at least since the Series returned to Lewiston in 2000.
With the help of sports information personnel at those schools and the Internet, I was able to complete this year's set earlier today, and I am quite impressed with a few teams' logos.
The one that jumps out right away is SC Beaufort's — I mean, how can you go wrong with a mascot like a sand shark? That logo is a killer. I am eager to see what their uniforms look like.
And Point Park's buffalo head coming out of a Pittsburgh backdrop — that rocks. Of course, I'm still not sure how a plains bison correlates with the Steel City, but aesthetically, I still dig it.
The Rogers State Hillcats logo is pretty good, too, although the typography seems a little too futuristic/video gamey for my old-school tastes.
College of Idaho hasn't been back to the World Series since it was called Albertson College of Idaho (back in the "Your diploma: Paper or plastic?" era), so we haven't really had a need for the 'Yotes logo in the paper. But it's solid, if a tad bit derivative of the logo sported by NHL's Phoenix Coyotes (at least until that team leaves for greener pastures).
Of the Series mainstays, I've always liked Lee's flaming logo, as well as OCU's Stars. The only non-typographical athletic logo for LSU Shreveport I could find anywhere was the sternwheeler pictured here, although the school's mascot is a pelican named Pete the Pilot. Found a few pictures of Pete but nothing that I could reproduce for print.
Lastly, LCSC's logo, while colorful, is a little bit on the cartoon-y side. As long as I've worked at the Tribune (25-plus years), the college has seemed to shy away from making overt references to its mascot — the Warriors — perhaps out of respect for the local Indian population. And that's understandable. Still, it presents a dilemma in terms of illustrating the school mascot which they still haven't resolved, at least in my mind.
Something to work on for next year's Series, I guess. If it comes back to Lewiston, that is.
