The Eagle gets a Makeover

The Boston College Eagle, BC's athletics totem since students selected it in a 1920 vote over the owl and the antelope, underwent a change in appearance this summer. At high noon on July 26, in a function room in Conte Forum, before an audience of about 100 that included sportswriters, broadcast executives, a television crew, and a dozen BC administrators who'd sniffed out a free lunch, a new version of BC's bird was unveiled in a video that featured some of the University's coaches and players in their redecorated uniforms.

Presiding over the event like a nervous mother-in-law-to-be was Sue Mosher, director of marketing for the Athletics Association, who had overseen two years of planning and review that led to the new look. (Full disclosure: I was a member of a small panel that met periodically to examine revised Eagle proposals.)

It was a makeover undertaken with a good deal of trepidation on the part of Mosher and Athletics Director Gene DeFilippo. Though the origins of the previous athletics logo--an Eagle with wings spread between an interlocking "B" and "C"--are unknown even to the longest- serving athletics staff members, the image has represented BC teams for at least 40 years. "People have a deep respect for athletics traditions," said DeFilippo, "even when no one remembers how the tradition started or why."

But left untended, traditions and logos grow stale. At BC, Eagle mutations had begun to proliferate, and uniforms had in some cases begun running to mustard, crimson, tan, or red. Lately, sales of BC logo athletic apparel (a $2.5 billion national market for colleges) were not what they might have been--particularly among the young consumers who constitute the most lucrative market for logo items. Overall, according to industry sources, sales were dominated in the 1990s by the resonant greens and purples that adorned cartoon ducks, raptors, and sharks. "Maroon is not the first color of choice for 15-year-old boys," Bookstore Director Thomas McKenna noted dryly. And eagles--though the most popular of college mascots, with 74 known exemplars--are the subject of few Disney movies.

Still, teal, jade, and cute were never on the table. "The older logo had a great heritage," said DeFilippo, "and we didn't want to damage that heritage that goes back to legendary figures like Bill Flynn and Snooks Kelly and some of those great hockey and baseball teams of the postwar period. What we did want to do was improve on the interlocking BC, to try and display what Boston College athletics is about in the year 2000."

Developed by SME Design, a New York City firm whose clients include 300 teams ranging from the University of North Carolina to the New York Nets, the new logo retains the eagle with "BC" backdrop, but modernizes the lettering, adds black to frame the maroon and gold, and turns the bird from a cruiser to a dive bomber. In addition, SME developed uniform specifications, a wordmark for every varsity team, a look-'em-in-the-eye Eagle suitable for clothing patches, and a goofily friendly "youth mark" Eagle, which now exists in a nine-foot version that patrols the sidelines during games.

In a recent interview, Sue Mosher seemed very relaxed about the revised look, noting that several new national retail vendors are vying to carry the BC line. Moreover, Mosher reported, she'd received few complaints from individuals seeking the older Eagle look. Tom McKenna is also happy. "The new graphics," he said, "have real pop." They also have retail power. Sales at the bookstore and on its Web site are up 20 percent over last year.

Ben Birnbaum

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