Note: if you know anyone who would agree with this petition but doesn't read this site, please send it to them and have them sign. I'd like 100 signatures before sending it off to Bob. That seems like a strong number where he'd have to listen. Below is the petition:
Bob De Carolis,
We, ______________(the undersigned below), respectfully ask Oregon State University to officially discard the cartoon angry beaver as a logo for the university. Removal of the beaver should include but not be limited to Ralph Miller Court, Reser Stadium, and players' football helmets. We believe the cartoon beaver is dated, embarrassing, and makes the university look second rate.
Additionally, we ask that the current administration strongly consider simplicity or no logos at all. For example, the all black, matte helmet (as used during the 2010 the Civil War) created a strong yet classy image. We believe such a helmet, combined with the orange jersey, would give the Beavers increased national exposure while also being more aesthetically pleasing.
Finally, we ask the administration be more open to aggressive change. There is a feeling in the fan base that Oregon State as a whole is slow to react in these modern times. We fans would rather see proactive flounders than delayed, reactionary, or stagnant decision making.
We thank you for taking the time to read our concerns, and hope you take them into consideration moving forward in the Pac-12.
-angry
– HassMakesTheCatch
-beavfan4
-OS_Beaver
-progressivebeav
-AfghanBeav
-sadbeaver
– NAGoBeavs
-mw2
-YoungBeav
Not to shit on your day, Angry, but this petition won’t work.
1) This whole thing of asking them to be more proactive and forward-thinking is like asking the Democratic and Republican parties to stop fucking around and get something done.
2) If you really want it to make a difference, there are online petition sites that people can put down their real names- because right now I don’t think -Beavocalypse, progressivebeav, sadbeav, Hassmakesthecatch, are going to win Bobby D over.
Other than that, I’m totally on board with it.
-Beavocalypse
At the very least it plants a seed. Bob D always reads what I send him.
-Warren Smith
–nancy
-bganf
-Alex graham (season ticket holder)
Jeremy Paul Henderson
I dig it! My dad had photos from the field of OJ Simpson covered in mud at Parker in ’67 and the Beavers looked great in those colors. I suffered through the all-white and black 90’s and loved the latest throwback look. Get rid of the wet rat! I do miss old Benny though.
-MaShuai
And turn over the marketing to Tinker Hatfield.
Beaverface.
Ditto on Tinker Hatfield.
Anthony V.
Jacob S. – season ticket holder
-mckalk
Another vote for Tinker Hatfield to be in charge of our overall design and marketing concept.
-BeavGirl
aicandme
As an OSU graphic design graduate, I agree that the Angry Beaver logo looks amateurish. Look carefully at the scripted Beaver text below the angry beaver head too. It’s very inconsistent and sloppy. At least the Beaver script that was used by itself on the 80’s helmets was cleanly rendered. Regardless, the script must be eliminated, and I thought I read recently that it was going to be eliminated.
If a literal beaver animal is to be graphically depicted, we need to do much better than the angry beaver. For what it’s worth, I think most graphic artists would agree that the original Benny Beaver logo is much more professionally rendered (illustrated) than the angry Beaver. The original Benny is outdated and overly detailed though for todays audience. The modernized, cleaned up Benny that was released a few years ago is good but still too cartoony. It however should not be eliminated from circulation for the throw back value.
I’d love to think that the reason that UO does not depict a duck is because they’re embarrassed of their mascot but who knows. Instead they depict duck “parts” in their graphics selection. (wings, web feet, etc, but no duck). We actually may need to consider this thinking to a degree if we don’t want the cartoony look of a full Beaver animal.
One way to approach this idea would be to have a pair of dark, angry, orange eyes (and no teeth) piercing out of darkness hunched down low and ready to attack with a bit of tail sticking up behind above his head. Auburn and LSU both have eyes only for alternate logos.
The “OS” logo font has been a good stepping stone but probably not the final destination. The baseball team has jerseys that has vertically distorted the all caps “BEAVERS” lettering on the chest. That’s a clear design blunder and shouldn’t happen.
Final thought…I don’t think I agree with having blank football helmets though I may be persuaded.
Thanks for the good insight.
You know what I was thinking? A nice, classic “B” (for Beavers) on the side of the helmet, and ditch the animal all together. Think Chicago Bears–same colors, just a “C” on the side…it is simple and looks completely bad ass.
Interesting idea Angry. It would definitely be a departure since any college I can think of uses the letter of their university if using a letter on the helmet. The Cincy Bengals have a “B” as an alternate logo but I can’t think of any teams that use the mascot letter as opposed to the school/pro team letter. I’m sure there is a few. The Orioles for one. I think it would be confusing for the recognition aspect and we don’t need more confusion. Good things happen when brainstorming though so let’s keep it up!
I prefer nothing on the helmet, but if there has to be something I’d prefer a “B” to “OS”…OS is just not right. It’s OSU, and those are too many letters. The great thing about a “B” is that it represents the animal (beaver), and therefore removes the problem of drawing one. There is no cool way to draw a Beaver.
But let’s assume a good beaver can be drawn. Expounding on your idea…
Take a look at this drawing:
http://www.mousearena.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/chicago_bears.jpg
Any way to draw the beaver eyes with maybe a big tail behind it and incorporate it into a “B”? I think if you could keep it to eyes and a tail and just suggest a nasty beaver it would be much more effective than drawing one out.
Really, it is time to admit the source material (a beaver for godsakes) is not the mascot one really expects to go into battle with and thus the dilemma for OSU sports. I think it is time to move on from any type of animal depiction and go with something classy and subtle like the throwback jerseys. “Earthquake” Bill would have chewed up Benny and spit him out!
you may be right. I’m still not giving up on at least the tail though.
and to clarify, I’m not talking about helmet logo per se, just a logo that could be used by the athletic dept. in a new and unified brand.
That’s a great example. That Bears (the bear part) logo has always been a favorite of mine. Real eye grabbing. It definitely is hard to make a Beaver look cool/tough. Maybe just eyes peering out of a sillouetted forest…??
Why do you prefer nothing on the helmet?
Although very intriguing I just can’t imagine the “B” on the helmet. I’m trying…
I prefer nothing on the helmet because we root for a school that named itself after an animal that doesn’t belong on a football helmet. So, why force the issue and put it on there? If we need a beaver on there for whatever reason, then just put a “B” to represent it.
Oregon realized this and just went with “O” and it’s great. Imagine a Duck on the helmet? Look at the old Iowa Hawkeye helmets when they had the large hawk. Can you name a school with an animal logo on their helmet that actually looks good? I can’t think of one, but I can think of many blank helmets (Penn State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, etc) and single letter helmets (Oregon, Georgia, Stanford, etc) that look great. The common theme is that less is more, and simple designs work. Even Oregon, the flashiest school in DI, went simple when it came to helmets–that should tell us something.
I’d actually rather see “Beavs” or even a slogan like “Go Beavs” on the helmet than OS. OS and the cartoon are both the worst and least creative ideas, and it seems to be what most fans want to stick with. Anyway, I say go in this order:
1. Nothing
2. “B”
3. “Beavs”/slogan
How about BVZ on the helmet. Nah, back to traditional.
“Go Beavs” on the hlemt would almost be as bad as “Legends and Leaders” and the new Big Ten logo.
I like using the orange classic “O” that is on all letterman jackets. It is classic and we could add that to the center of the field and it would look cool. It would be prominent enough that we could then do like Ohio St. and choose not to use the “O” on the helmets, just on the pants. I say keep the Ginat Killer unis but just tweak them a small amount like lessening the white stripes. A number on one side of the helmet would be OK but I would probably prefer not. I do like the idea of custom Oregon State flags that use the back of our state flag with an orange beaver on a black flag.
I think if we try to have a strong classic design that is still fresh we will do the best. Ohio St., Iowa and the Steelers should be used for inspiration along with Auburn (thinner white stripes) to be of the moment. Auburn also has orange as an important color but does not overdo it and has a recognizable brand of football and plays in the always classic Iron bowl, which I feel the Civil War is the closest thing to in the Pac-12.
What about having the players numbers on the sides of the helmets in Orange? Like what Bama does?
Nothing wrong with that. Would take a little of Bama’s thunder if they weren’t the only one. I think we both feel Tinker was off to a good start but that we should just make some small adjustments and then actually adopt them as part of a new branding campaign. I liked the orange numbers on the jerseys so would be Ok if we wanted that for the helmets too as part of something that is similar to the Giant Killers yet will be seen nationally as innovative and exciting and forging a new tough identity to get this program to national relevance and eventually national prominence.
good points (was laughing at first line). Let me clarify that I think it’s a very long shot that something could be done that would be appropriate for a helmet. I’m thinking more as an alternate logo of some sort.
I’m 100% in favor of removing the angry beav logo from the helmets and anywhere it’s used.
My short term solution is put the OS on the helmet, maybe even the B (but what font?…and remember, we’re going for a unified brand here), and blank would be OK. The B would be unique, maybe the good aspects of that would outweigh the confusion for the short term until people go used to it.
-uncanny
-signed.
Personally, I loved the entirety of the Civil War uniform, although the helmet could use a little touch-up. The straight-black jersey is sick and should be used more often.
OS is okay as a school symbol, if it were designed better. I’d like to try and avoid copying UO’s “O” if we could though; we’re a different school and atmosphere, so going with some typical single-letter symbol is a bit like we’re latching on to them.
I hate double-posting, but…
Why can’t we make OSU work as a school symbol? It’s what we CALL the school. It’s what we chant at games. I graduated OSU; it’s the school’s name; we can make it work.
Yeah, the current OSU symbol is kinda weak, no doubt. But get some talented people on it, we can make it work, and it’s different enough from UO that we stand out without some drastic makeover or a cartoon character.
I always liked the wrestling logo –
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://oregonstate.edu/wrestling/00/images/beaver.gif&imgrefurl=http://oregonstate.edu/wrestling/00/index00.html&usg=__yUSzBC_IaCF-rrezAU29vLQfpTI=&h=479&w=385&sz=8&hl=en&start=19&sig2=6ZuXD0gk54y4cdWxdJhOkA&zoom=1&tbnid=i9JQZARQFqrITM:&tbnh=178&tbnw=143&ei=LkMHTdPoMeSHnAe2nKDmDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dosu%2Bbeaver%2Bwrestling%2Blogo%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1C1RNNN_enUS371US399%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D687%26tbs%3Disch:10,400&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=336&oei=F0MHTZLdIpCOnweoybzEDQ&esq=13&page=2&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:19&tx=97&ty=152&biw=1280&bih=687
Beaverton always had a cool, but cartoony Beaver basketball logo-
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jamthedam.net/Graphics/Basketball%2520Beaver.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jamthedam.net/ourmission.htm&usg=__v2XRz6q13xKWzWFJT84UZ41u7lM=&h=1177&w=922&sz=110&hl=en&start=0&sig2=yUrOogLpkW1gl3Q6-8xyXw&zoom=1&tbnid=8cASW-smjumHVM:&tbnh=140&tbnw=110&ei=jUMHTeCmD4uinQfL0OTEDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbeaverton%2Bbasketball%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1RNNN_enUS371US399%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D687%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=240&vpy=50&dur=419&hovh=254&hovw=199&tx=106&ty=147&oei=jUMHTeCmD4uinQfL0OTEDQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0
Also I think it would be cool to have an overarching logo for all sports (IE the OS or whatever) and then more unique logos for each sport.
I think most people see the Angry Beaver logo as a football first logo. If the soccer teams had a crest, basketball their own thing I think it’d really help the identity of the sports.
-BeavBuff47
I grew up in Oregon, went to OSU, then moved to San Diego 7 years ago. The first week in S.D. I heard many “Go Buckeyes” chants as people saw my black hat with the block “O.” 95% of the country associates that block “O” with Ohio State. I thought, what the hell, are you people idiots, this is “OREGON STATE.” Eventually I realized, no one outside of Oregon really knows a damn thing about Oregon State. Trying to market that block “O” logo for Oregon State is like trying to start a new search engine to compete with Google. On numerous other occasions when wearing gear with the “OSU” logo on it, people would say, “Oklahoma State sure has a good team,” “Did you go to Oklahoma State,” etc. Again, the orange and black “OSU” logo is too confusing to compete with Oklahoma State. As weak as Oklahoma State is, believe it or not, they still are more well known in the country than Oregon State.
For these reasons, I think the “OS” logo is a good marketing tool for Oregon State. Sure, it can and should be tweaked a little bit, but it is a great way to differentiate ourselves from the other OSUs. I would like to see us go for something more like the SF Giants logo. That is a classic Orange and Black look and it looks great. Whatever logo we come up with, we need it to be consistent for ALL TEAMS.
That Google simile was awesome.
I would like us to be the Ohio St. of the Pac-12. What I like about the block orange “O” is it is both classic and tough, and has more impact when understated by having all black helmets like the Ginat Killers. I liked the Orange “O” more on the pants and on the coaches hat. I think we just thin down the white part of the stripe or just have fairly thin orange stripe on the helmet and those Giant Killer unis could make us proud for a number of years and help us forge a better identity. They just need a “sail” color road jersey and an orange one too for special occassions. Tell Tinker to just make these minor adjustments and I think we have a solid brand for Oregon State.
Choosy approve massa angry
-dabeavs
-calibeav
-Tim S
-GOBeavers22
One thing to keep in mind re: Tinker Hatfield – Nike owns the “O” to U of O. Therefore Nike makes all the money off of it. Nike has approach OSU about redesigning our logo and the helmet (I have too many friends that work at Nike in the marketing and accounting departments and one who used to work in Beaver Athletics), but OSU continues to say no because we need the money from our apparel sales. I actually agree with OSU not accepting Nike’s offer to redesign our logo. I truly hate the “OS” but I also understand the monetary value of it.
That being said, I’m all for getting rid of the Angry Beaver. I’m also not a big fan of the “B” as for some reason the left-side profile of a player with the player looking in one direction and the B going in the opposite really bothers me. So in the end, I would love to have those classic helmets back that we wore in the Civil War.
I like the classic look and not being flashy like the Yucks. Let them have their non-school colors and their wings. I’ll take a classic, old school look any day.
PS – Did we really offer Blake Harrah?! WTF! I just want the Grant kids, Byron Moore, Stefan McClure, Cyrus Hobbi, Todd Peat, and the other OT from UCLA. No more DEs!
I agree with letting Tinker Hatfield do his thing and help re-brand OSU! He has a desire and a passion to help OSU, and he is very talented at what he does! His results are proven and coveted. I also think our mascot should look more like a BEAVER and less like a rat. Look, whatever oregon is doing and has done, obviously works. How long is OSU going to dig their heels with stubbornness and/or put their heads in the sand? Wake up OSU, and get with the times! If you look good, you feel good. If you feel good, you play good too! Right now oregon is the cool school to play for, not OSU. OSU can help change that, or close the widening gap between uo and OSU with better/creative marketing, and being more open to change. Free Tinker Hatfield
http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=125979134533394200
Amen Brother! Oregon is having the utmost success using a proven model for marketing and building a program that will probably lead them to a national championship this year. If you don’t like the kind of results or have a desire for the same type of success at Oregon State then we should just be in the Big Sky. Go for an aggressive marketing campaign that makes Oregon State nationally attractive for recruits and then try to compete so that the Civil War decides the North champion. Once we win a couple of these, then a good amount of higher profile recruits will like the OSU image as an alternative to the Ducks just based on small differences. We can use a more classic look but since the Ducks are so wild it will be compelling as long as it is cool and expresses a compelling national brand image. Tinker was very close with the Giant Killers. Just a few tweaks and it will be a modern yet classic look that incorporates some of the best design elements from teams we have shown that we like their design elements and image like Ohio St., Iowa, Auburn and the Steelers. We don’t need it to look too dated or anything though so that Oregon is always seen as the forward-looking program. It can be classic AND modern and there is even room for OUR unis to also be innovative and nationally popular and relevant so that when College Gameday speaks of us it is with admiration that we are an up and coming national program ON THE RISE.
I’m going to send this off to Bob now. If he responds, I’ll let you guys know. Feel free to add ideas in the meantime.
Look at this Norma Rae Webster
Use the guy that did the Stumptown design: http://www.hallofritz.com/
He charges 50 bucks an hour. You should have your readers donate like 500 bucks and hire him to design a logo to send to the school.
I found one helmet close to what I was talking about with the number on one side. Idaho State (of all the schools) wore one for the last two games of the 1965 season. I would take the one they wore for the remainder of the season as well.
http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/bigsky.htm
I’d love to have this helmet where the black and orange are simply switched.
https://www.gridironmemories.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=552
Get em while they last!
http://www.osubeaversshop.com/door-buster.html
Yeah, Benny should be the mascot instead of the creepy big headed rat. And his likeness should replace (re-replace?) the angry muskrat we have painted all over the place… but not be painted all over the place.
Maybe the point of this exercise is to at least have a uniform and recognizable identity. There are too many fonts for too many letter combos, and we rely on a cartoon version of our mascot which looks nothing like our mascot.
I guess if anything needs to be done we need to have a mascot which matches our caricature of our mascot.
That to me is the best hat. Simple, clean and effective. I don’t mind our Benny mascot suit. I just want him to crowd surf and do more creative things so that he better rivals the Duck and some national fans might actually prefer him to the Duck.
I think we have to just go with either “OS” or the orange block “O” on the center of our football field. What I like about the orange “O” is the block classic font. I know we were going for something that looks more like linked chains with the “OS” but I kinda think it would look better if the “OS” also used a block font to be more traditional. Thing is they would then probably want to change the way the Oregon St was written on the basketball court endlines.
One idea though would to be to use the classic “O” just on the football field and on football pants since the Oregon State in the endzones also uses the classic block font and then football can be used as our link to our tradition realm to honor our legacy. We could ditch the angry beaver on the helmets and use an all black look with an orange stripe and maybe a number. Then use “OS” with current fonts for all other sports. Either put a nice “OS” in the middle of the basketball court or do like angry suggested and have two “OS” placed diagonally from center court and go with a more basic center. My preference would be have just a nice fairly good size orange “OS” with black trim in the middle but just make sure it pops enough and the overall court has a nice effect on the eye. I think with the black that we use in the keys and around the court that the orange “OS” would pop well and it should look good and give us more pride then our current angry beaver.
Angry-
Besides ditching the cartoon beaver, OSU should drop Nike and stop being Phil Knight’s b*tch.
http://go-beavers.blogspot.com/2010/12/oregon-state-should-drop-nike-now.html
Go with OSU or Benny