At loggerheads over a logo?

It was announced this week that my high school alma mater, Mansfield (Mass.) High School, has chosen a new sports logo. 

Mansfield High's new Hornet logo.

More accurately, it has updated an old logo -- bringing to an end a five-month process that allowed my school to embrace its 79-year history as the Mansfield Green Hornets while updating its look and protecting it from those that might abuse it.

As pictured to the right, the new Hornet is bolder, stronger, with a touch of confidence and cockiness that the old one lacked. And it's greener. Our hornet's face is now green and he's proud enough of his heritage and association with our school to be wearing the newly-designed "M" logo on his shirt. 

You can see the differences in the new Hornet and the older one (pictured elsewhere in this missive). I really liked the older one, which has been around the halls of Mansfield High for more than a decade, but it's a little more cartoonish than The New Guy. 

And the big problem, one of the driving forces behind the decision to make the change, is that the old Hornet wasn't ours. We didn't own his rights, and free agency where logos are concerned can be a costly proposition.

The former Mansfield Hornet.

The former logo is a slightly-altered version of the Yellowjacket logo that represents Georgia Tech on the national stage. Take out the yellow and throw in some green and silver tones, and bingo -- we had a logo that was a damn sight better than some of the faltering images adopted by MHS over the years that struggled at making a stinging insect a sympathetic figure and something you wanted to rally the troops around.

It's no wonder that, in the late 1970s, a group of enterprising students decided to paint a mural of the Incredible Hulk inside the James Albertini Memorial Gymnasium. The Marvel Comics character was depicted as bursting through the cinder block wall of the gym, with the banner "MHS Green Machine" above it -- and, following decades of being the doormats of the Hockomock League and reading headlines that relied upon tired clichés such as "Hornets stung" or "Hornets squished," Mansfield athletes tried to tell the world through the Incredible Hulk that they were tired of being regarded as insignificant insects. 

Over the last quarter-century, Mansfield athletics have been on a huge upswing. The football, baseball, boys' basketball, girls' basketball, soccer, lacrosse and track-and-field teams, and others as well, have become perennial league contenders. That's the product of better athletes and better coaching, but I also have to believe that the adoption of a common logo to represent Mansfield teams helped forge a shared identity.

Georgia Tech's Yellowjacket.

But it's very important to note here that, as I said before, the logo wasn't ours. It was really Georgia Tech's. And that could have led to the manufacture of bootleg logo attire for which Mansfield High would receive no income whatsoever, or the possible use of the logo in manners that would not represent the values of the Mansfield School System -- or even worse, prompt Georgia Tech to step in and issue a cease-and-desist order for unauthorized trademark infringement. 

The pro leagues and major colleges protect the use of their logos and trademarks, knowing that firm control means additional revenue. The NFL has a department called NFL Properties which enforces trademark protection quite aggressively, regardless of whether it's a current logo or something from a member franchise's past.

Case in point: Some time back, a liquor store opened in one of our local towns calling itself "Patriot Liquors." Now, the word "patriot" is in common use and the New England Patriots have no say over who can or who can't use it. But this particular store featured a sign that ripped off the team's old logo, the crouching "Pat Patriot" caricature created by artist Phil Bissell in the early 1960s, with just one difference -- the football that Pat was about to snap in his classic pose was missing.

That wasn't enough to avoid the wrath of NFL Properties, which started the process of legal action to stop the use of the Patriots' former logo. The issue met its own resolution when the liquor store went out of business.

You may also recall that many years back, Major League Baseball demanded payment from teams in the well-known summer Cape Cod Baseball League that used MLB trademarks and nicknames, forcing many of the teams to change their identities entirely. But more often than not, pro and college teams don't take offense when high school programs use their logos. Franklin High used the Carolina Panthers' logo on its football helmets for a few years before designing its own unique logo. Another local school briefly used Northwestern University's stylized "N" on their helmets, but quickly went back to a common typeface. I'm not sure if that school heard from Evanston, but it certainly was a quick decision.

And, of course, you have the current and ongoing controversy in Foxboro over the use of the Washington Redskins' former logo. We'll get into that issue a little further down in this missive.

Anyway, the process in Mansfield was swift and relatively painless. Since Insect-Americans do not seem to be offended by the use of a hornet as our logo, a panel consisting of school administrators, athletic department officials, coaches, teachers, students and community members (including me) was formed and asked to offer opinions as to how a "new" hornet should reflect the values that they believe were the best of what Mansfield represents.

My dad's letter sweater
(Class of 1937).

Also brought on board was a fellow named Jeff Eagles, who runs a design firm out of Canton that has worked with high schools, colleges and pro teams in designing dynamic new logos. Among his clients are the Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers of the NHL as well as recent rebrandings for Attleboro High and Canton High. 

Eagles did his homework, looking through archival photos dating back more than 120 years to see how Mansfield represented itself. Old Townies like me knew that the inspiration for the nickname came not from an insect, but from a student vote in 1945 that reflected the popularity of the radio serial "The Green Hornet." Second place, by the way, was "Marauders." But I didn't know that it was in 1909 that the Mansfield High baseball team adopted green as its primary coloring for the lettering on their uniforms, and green and white gradually became the official school colors.

In the many meetings of this panel, several options were presented. Some of the Hornets weren't very good at all. One version looked like the Hornet had been exposed to massive amounts of gamma radiation (you have seen the Marvel movies, right?) and became The Hulk -- totally 'roided out and dripping with far too much testosterone to accurately represent Mansfield's girls' teams. 

The laughable "Bucky Hornet."

That version reminded me of a horrible attempt to create a similar logo back in the 1980s by then-athletic director Vincent Messina, who fancied himself as an artist. Sensing that student sentiment was turning away from most portrayals of a hornet as a pest that should be eradicated, he created the ludicrously bulging "Bucky Hornet" logo you see at right. Well-intentioned as it was, it was clearly the worst logo ever to represent the school and an immediate target of ridicule.

The chosen iteration really was the best. It still features that feisty stature and that sly smile that says, "I'm ready to whip your ass." It's modern and a little angular, but it's relatable, too. It enjoys being from Mansfield, as indicated by the logo shirt it's wearing. And he's totally unique to Mansfield, which means that the Mansfield School Department has total control over how and when it can be used.

I posted photos of it online today, and for the most part, reactions have been very positive. Some still say they want to go back to the old logo, but that just isn't going to happen because of the trademark issue and the desire of Mansfield school officials to have control over its branding. I, too, liked the old logo -- but I fully understand why it had to give way to something new that we can call our very own.

One other aspect of this rebranding is that Mansfield now also has a standard font for use on its uniforms. The word "Mansfield" will also appear framed by arches above and below, which are symbolic of the train line that runs through the center of town (a major factor in the town's industrial growth in the late 1800s) and the underpasses that were built in the 1950s to help keep Mansfield a hub of transportation in the region. This rebranding will also re-emphasize green and white as the official colors of MHS athletics, and hopefully eliminate the overuse of black alternate uniforms that have led us astray from our athletic roots.

Even the letter "M" has a subtle change. You will notice at the top of the letter that there are little points that penetrate inward from the serifs. That is to make the top left and top right serifs appear to separate from the base of the letter, symbolizing the wings of a hornet. They were much bigger in earlier designs, but many of us started to see the letters M and V on top of each other (as if this was a new logo for Martha's Vineyard), so the design was altered.

As far as I can tell, the whole process has been accomplished without rancor and ill feelings. The biggest point I made during the procedure (and I was quite the pain in the ass about it) was that I didn't want to see Mansfield adopt uniforms that had dark green numbers on the green shirts, as Canton High has done on its road basketball uniforms. That color combination practically renders the numbers invisible from a distance -- and as a 70-year-old basketball announcer, I need to be able to see those numbers. 

For his part, Jeff Eagles said that while he came up with the designs for Canton's rebranding, he did not recommend that color combination for the Bulldogs' uniforms. Hopefully that message was delivered loud and clear to my friends at MHS.

And that brings us back to the travails of the Foxboro Warriors.

You may recall that last year, the School Committee voted to eliminate future use of any Native American imagery in logos representing the school, while at the same time reaffirming "Warriors" as the nickname. Fearful of threatened state legislation that would ban all Native American-themed nicknames and logos, the committee acted in a manner that it hoped would preserve the popular nickname, which has been in use since the 1950s, while sacrificing the use of the former Washington Redskins' logo which was first applied to Foxboro football helmets in the 1980s.

Many schools in Massachusetts and elsewhere have changed their representation similarly, or chosen entirely new identities, rather than facing the possibility of being forced to change if one of the many attempts to legislate against Native American imagery finally succeeds. King Philip Regional High School recently dropped all Native American imagery for a simple logo with the letters K and P interlocking, still keeping the Warriors nickname, with nary a peep of protest. It was done quietly and with absolutely no fanfare, and no one was the wiser that it had happened.

Foxboro probably would have been wise to take the same approach. Instead, the school committee meeting was filled with angry Townies claiming that the loss of the Redskins logo -- which had been ripped off from a pro team and would later become the most disgraced image in all of logodom -- would be the worst thing ever to happen to the town. It was, in a word, embarrassing.

But the vote was taken and the decision was made -- a decision that would cost a couple of incumbents their places on the committee in the next election. But before that happened, a committee was formed to create a new logo -- and that committee's mandate came due this past week.

Much like Mansfield's, the Foxboro panel was populated with a cross-section of school officials, private citizens and students. From all indications, it worked very hard and very judiciously to feel the pulse of the community about this hot-button issue, but all the while having to buck widespread opposition to anything but the old Redskins logo.

This could be Foxboro's new logo.

The panel had 16 designs submitted to it. The first to be eliminated were those featuring a fox as the central element, because most feedback indicated that Foxboro residents polled didn't identify with the animal as representative of the community. Eventually, four "finalists" were selected and the apparent winner is the one you see at right. It wasn't my favorite, but it's not much better or worse than any of the others. In this instance, the logo's central element is a half-blue, half-gold helmet which, I think, is supposed to represent warriors of ancient times, Greek or Roman themes coming to mind. I, however, tend to be stuck in my Marvel Comics mindset, and what I see is the image of the helmet worn by Magneto, master of magnetism and the arch-villain and nemesis of the mutant X-Men. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go on demand and play "X-Men: Days of Future Past." I prefer Michael Fassbender's version of the younger Magneto to Ian McKellan's portrayal of the older Magneto in the original trilogy, but you will see both of them in the role in this movie.

The school board voted 3-2 to accept the design and send it on for some final tweaking, which may involve removal of the "W" on the helmet, changing it to more of a side view, and a few minor changes to the type fonts. But you can bet that there will still be cries of objections to the procedure, no matter what they finish with. 

I also think the Foxboro board made a mistake by not establishing the logo and the "Warriors" nickname as the standard for the entire school system, as Mansfield has done. Elementary schools in Foxboro have their own nicknames and imagery, and they don't become Warriors until Grade 9. That just doesn't make sense to me, but hey, I haven't been a Foxboro resident since 2015, so I really have no say.

I can't say much more, opinion-wise, because I still have great friends in Foxboro and they are very nice to let me call games played by the girls' basketball team on Foxboro Cable Access (including their last two state championship wins). I've tried to tell them that this is for future generations and not their own, but they don't want to accept that. And I've tried to understand how they feel, but it's tough for me to do so because my town chose an insect to serve as its mascot, and not the indigenous peoples of this land who were massacred in the name of Manifest Destiny.

Maybe if those Mansfield kids in 1945 had been really faithful to the radio serial and chose the Green Hornet's Asian sidekick, Kato, as their mascot, we'd have been in a world of hurt today from the Asian community over our use of a distasteful stereotype to represent our athletic teams. 

But they didn't, and thank God for that.

Mark Farinella has been designing sports uniforms and logos just for fun since the 1970s, and no one has ever seen any of his designs. But he always makes a point of analyzing every uniform he sees during a televised game. Contact him at theownersbox2020@gmail.com.