Friday, October 4, 2019 | General, Football, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In 1987, Mary Howard was in her first few months as the sports information department contact for the University of Florida women's golf team. The Lady Gators (yes, that was their nickname at the time) were coming off a second straight NCAA championship and Howard was putting together the team's home tournament program when she encountered something of a quandary.
The team logo.
Or logos. Lady Gator golf logo
"We had so many," recalled Howard, now a senior associate AD for communications. "I didn't know which to use."
So she went to Coach Mimi Ryan to ask. The answer was simple.
"Same one as last year," Ryan said matter-of-factly.
As in, the one with Alberta, armed with golf bag on her back. Yeah, that one.
The instance was not the flashpoint in the evolution of the Florida brand as we know it, rather just one of many that led to the birth of one of the most recognizable logos in all of college athletics.
The "Gator Head" (capitalized here out of respect) turns 25 today.
On Oct. 4, 1994, the University Athletic Association unveiled the toothy, snarling Gator that has become synonymous with the program the last quarter-century. Talking about staying power.
"Obviously, it's a brand that is easily recognizable," said volleyball coach Mary Wise, the only current UF coach who was around for Gator head startup. "Is that because of the logo or the success of so many of our teams? Maybe both."
Call it a symbiotic relationship that began with a call for uniformity, from then-Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, who arrived at UF in 1976 as a ticket-office intern and worked his up the organizational ladder until his promotion to AD in 1992. Along the way, he didn't have a say in the Gators' branding. Once in charge, though, it became a priority.
The scattershot logo practice had to stop.
"We just had too many of them," Foley said of the multitude of team emblems that ranged from the popular chest-poking, chicken-footed Gator, to the interlocking "U" and "F," to the script "Gators," to even a growling Gator over a silhouetted state of Florida. "The women had their own; every sport seemed to have their own."
A few examples (and not all) of the Florida Gators multiple logos back in the day.
Foley recalled walking through airports and seeing folks representing their schools, whether with the unmistakable "ND" for Notre Dame, block "M" for Michigan or Longhorn "T" for Texas. Florida needed its own universal identity.
So Foley organized a committee with representatives from the UAA's administration, marketing, licensing and communication departments. Even the head of the Gator Gift Shop was recruited onto the team. Whatever the final product would be, the intent was to sell a lot of it.
The timing was perfect, as a world-wide sports branding explosion — led by Nike — was underway.
One of the members of the committee was a young, up-and-coming coordinator in the marketing department.
"We all agreed it was difficult to create a really strong brand identity for the Gators with so many different renditions. I seriously think we had like 15 or 16 of them," said Mike Hill, now athletic director at Charlotte. "It was a good group of people, the committee, some of them having been there a long time with a lot of institutional knowledge."
A firm was hired to design the new logo. The first several prototypes were rejected.
Some of the logo prototypes submitted to UF in 1994.
"Hated 'em," Foley said.
Then came the Gator head, which he loved.
"It helped that a couple of our coaches endorsed it," Hill said.
One in particular.
Said Steve Spurrier at the time: "It's got some bite to it, doesn't it?"
The overall reception, though, was hardly universal. Not everyone in the UAA liked it. Letters to The Gainesville Sun editorial page expressed disdain. Some thought it was too green (given the team colors are orange and blue). And the logo took a mojo hit when 11 days after its reveal the No. 1-ranked football team lost to Auburn in what was Spurrier's first home Southeastern Conference defeat.
It was the Gator head's fault, obviously.
Change, after all, isn't for everyone.
And yet, T-shirts, sweatshirts, flags and the like hit stores in time for the holidays. The following fall, the logo appeared on the football team's jerseys, then spread throughout the athletic programs. In time, of course, the Gator head turned giant and showed up on the O'Connell Center floor and on the 50-yard line at Florida Field, giving viewers no chance of mistaking the venue they were watching on television.
"It's a nickname — Gators — that is different than Bulldogs, Tiger and Wildcats," Hill said. "We needed a mark that was different, as well. And we needed it to be representative of the brand at the time, but also one that would stand the test of time."
Twenty-five years ... and counting.
The final/fantastic product in 1994 (left) eventually was tweaked a bit to arrive at the current version (right).
Just a few weeks ago, Foley was home watching college football on TV when a graphic of the nation's top 10 teams and how they'd fared that day flashed on the screen. The chart featured the name of each team, accompanied by its logo, and Foley couldn't help but notice nearly every school's trademark was a letter. The crimson "A" for Alabama, the red and black "G" for Georgia, the maroon "OU" for Oklahoma, the purple and gold "LSU."
Foley's bias (and rooting interest) aside, one of the logos distinguished itself more than the rest.
