Commentary

By Kevin Hampton
Gazette-Times reporter

The worst-kept secret at Oregon State University is finally out.

The new OS logo has been revealed, officially unveiled Wednesday.

Never mind that the baseball and softball teams have been wearing gear with the logo since the start of the seasons.

The logo itself is fine. It’s an interlocking O and S and looks OK on the uniforms. Simple and straightforward.

The university saw fit to contract the work, going to a professional designer to come up with the logo.

That was probably a little bit of overkill considering the money spent. After all, how many options are there with two letters? Really, they could have gone to an art student or held a contest and the end result would have been about the same.

And it’s certainly not unique.

A quick surf of the Internet revealed a few similar logos around the country, including a near-match on an Oklahoma State baseball cap.

But to listen to the athletic administration, it’s not just a logo. It’s a brand identity system.

They want OS to define the university’s athletic teams, to separate the Beavers from (The) Ohio State University and Oklahoma State.

OSU, apparently, is too confusing. People around the country surely can’t tell whether it refers to the Beavers, Buckeyes or Cowboys.

“This new branding effort will enable us to create a common identity and will set us apart from other schools that have similar color schemes and abbreviations,” OSU athletic director Bob De Carolis said in a release.

“I want to stress that we will still be OSU to our fans and alumni and continue to use OSU in our fight song and rally cheers.”

The new logo is fine. A new identity? Hogwash.

Let’s face it: nobody is confusing Oregon State with Ohio State or even the school in Stillwater. To most of the country, OSU means Ohio State.

When the Beavers do manage to land in the national spotlight, by winning the national title in baseball or playing in bowl games, they are generally referred to as “Oregon State” or “the Beavers” by the national media.

If an ESPN announcer flubs, it’s almost always mixing up OSU with Oregon. Somehow I don’t think the OS logo is going to ensure the Beavers mistakenly being called the Ducks never happens again.

Will the new logo create a new identity? Doubtful. It might sell a few more T-shirts.

The bottom line is OSU is always going to be OSU to the majority of Beavers fans.

Tradition is a big part of college sports. It can be long-standing and legendary as found before and during some of the biggest and oldest rivalry games in football.

It can also be as small and seemingly insignificant as the OSU chant. I doubt that many fans are going to cheer, “Ohhh, Esss …. Oregon State, fight, fight, fight” anytime soon and De Carolis said he doesn’t expect them to.

Nevertheless, it’s a big marketing move by a university often criticized for being behind the times.

Marketing can be a great boost for athletic programs. Done well it can help a school sell more tickets and more merchandise.

Oregon State fans have done their fair share of groaning about the school’s marketing.

They look south and see the results of cutting-edge thinking. Comic books. The YES Network.

But the Ducks have had their share of disasters. Roboduck ring a bell?

Oregon State might be striving to catch up, but sometimes sticking to the basics works just fine.

Keep the logo. Just don’t forget the U.

Kevin Hampton is a sports reporter for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at kevin.hampton@lee.net.