NCAA - University of Cincinnati

New U. of Cincinnati Logo Escapes Cage of Secrecy

By Lori Kurtzman
Enquirer staff writer

The new C-Paw was supposed to be a secret.

University of Cincinnati officials had guarded their revised athletic logo closely, requiring every licensed vendor to sign an agreement not to disclose the design until June 1. The university wasn't releasing it either, hoping to unveil its "bolder, stronger" symbol in late spring, just before UC's entry into the Big East Conference.

And then there it was.

At the grocery store.

Someone affiliated with the university spotted the new logo on a T-shirt at an area Kroger last week, said Carla Crabtree, UC's director of licensing.

The new Bearcat C-Paw - a more claw-like, italicized version of the old - had made an unexpected debut. UC officials started last week trying to track down and pull the shirts while seeking out the vendor and manufacturer responsible for the early release.

U. of Cincinnati - Sweatshirt

Crabtree said the university will reimburse Kroger for the T-shirts and has found "absolutely no fault" with the grocery chain. She said UC could potentially take action against the company that manufactured and sent out the shirts, but "until we get all the information ... we don't want to decide what we're going to do," she said.

"We want to do some investigation to make sure that it was an honest mistake and not somebody intentionally jumping the gun."

Steve Housh, owner of the Kansas-based distributor that acted as the middleman between Kroger and the T-shirt manufacturer, said about 150 shirts went out to 15 to 20 grocery stores.

Someone began circulating the logo via e-mail. Shaun Simpson, a 2000 graduate living in Columbus, got that e-mail and posted a note on a bearcatnews.com forum, offering to share it.

Several people took him up on the deal, Simpson said. Few liked what they saw. UC paid design firm LPK $35,000 to update the logo, which was adopted in 1990.

Tom Schultz, a 1996 graduate living in Mason, posted on the forum: "I'd like to chime in and say that it sucks. ... I'm thinking the design firm made the C-PAW into a font and then pressed Control+I to italicize it."

Some students at UC Monday were equally unimpressed.

"Their goal was to make it look more fierce for the Big East," said 19-year-old Stephen Myers. "But they didn't accomplish that," added Derek Sims, also 19.

The change, announced in November, wasn't meant to be drastic, said UC spokesman Greg Hand, but it was supposed to mark a transition for the Bearcats. The delay between the announcement and the unveiling of the logo was to give manufacturers enough time to create products with the new symbol, he said.

"We've been quite clear that what's going to be presented is an evolution of the existing logo," Hand said. "

On Monday, most posters discussing the logo on the bearcatnews.com forum called it a "waste of money" and said the C-Paw's claws look more like apostrophes. But one, Brad Holdheide, defended it.

"I liked the new C-Paw," he wrote. "It looks more like a claw than the current C with some oval blobs on top."

E-mail lkurtzman@enquirer.com.

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