Horizon League logo usage

Last night, February 13, I was at the Valparaiso vs. Green Bay basketball game. Great game, great crowd, great atmosphere. The game itself was incredible, but the uniform matchup was very nice as well. Through the duration of this game, the part of the uniforms that stood out to me was the conference logos. Most major conferences standardize use of the logo, such as the Big 10, SEC, and the Pac-12. However, the Horizon League is not a league that requires that all teams use the same logo, in the same place, on each jersey. Two different Horizon League logos are used by teams in the conference on their jerseys: the conference's main logo and the wordmark. After looking into this, the breakdown of the usage of each logo is:   - 4 teams using the primary logo

                                                                   - 4 teams using the wordmark

                                                                   - 1 team with no logo used

The team-by-team breakdown shows no real pattern in the usage of each logo. Seven of the teams in the conference are Nike: four use the wordmark, three the primary. The two adidas teams are different as well. For the breakdown of each team, in alphabetical order:

Cleveland State Vikings
Cleveland State is one of the seven teams signed with Nike; one of five under the Nike brand. The Vikings have three jerseys: white, grey, and green. On both the white and grey uniforms, the primary logo is placed above the hem of the shorts on the right leg. However, the green jersey and shorts do not have a logo on them, making Cleveland State unique in being the only team in the league to not have the league logo on one set of jerseys, but on the other sets.

Detroit Titans

Just like Cleveland State, UDM is one of the Horizon League teams under the Nike brand. Detroit has three jerseys as well: white home jerseys, red aways, and a grey alternate. The Titans use the wordmark logo on all of their uniforms, putting it on the left collarbone on all three. The quirk for Detroit is the color of the wordmark font: red on the white jersey,

black on the grey jersey, and white on the road red jerseys, making Detroit the only team in the league with three different colored fonts for the league logo.

 UWGB Phoenix
The Phoenix of Wisconsin-Green Bay also side with Nike as their jersey producer. The Phoenix, even with a color scheme of green, red, black, and white, only have two jerseys; white at home, black on the road. This season, UWGB has had at least one alternate jersey, but that will be covered in a separate post. From what I could find, it appears as if the wordmark logo only appears on the road black set, on the right hip. The white set appears to have a 3-D, raised primary logo patch where the league logo appears on the black jerseys, which would make the Phoenix the only team in the Horizon League to put a team logo on the hip of their shorts.

Milwaukee Panthers

U.S. Cellular Arena-UWM

UWM is the only team in the Horizon League to host games at two different arenas, although just one game was scheduled for the on-campus Klotsche Center for this season, with the rest set for U.S. Cellular Arena in downtown Milwaukee. The defending league tournament champions are also one of just two adidas teams in the Horizon League, along with UIC. Unlike past years, the Panthers have only two jerseys this year: white and black. Both feature the Horizon League wordmark logo on the left hip, with the font being black on the white jersey and the opposite on the black jersey.

Klotsche Center-UWM

 



Athletics Center O'Rena-Oakland

Oakland Golden GrizzliesThe Golden Grizzlies of Oakland, the newest member of the Horizon League, are also just one of two teams in it that are under the Jordan brand from Nike. Oakland has the most jerseys of any team in the league with 4; white, gold, black, and grey. On three of these jerseys, white, gold, and black, the Horizon League wordmark logo is placed on the top left of the jersey, around the collarbone area. On the alternate grey jerseys, the wordmark can be faintly seen in matte black, which is barely readable, just like the rest of the jerseys.



UIC Flames
UIC joins Milwaukee as one of two Horizon League teams signed with adidas, and one of four teams in the league with three distinct jerseys. The Flames wear white jerseys at home, and either red or blue on the road. UIC is included in the list of league teams that put the league patch on the shorts, opting for the primary logo on the left hip. The logo is in white on both sets of road jerseys, and in blue on the home jerseys.

Valparaiso Crusaders

Currently the first-placed team in the Horizon League, my hometown Crusaders have one of, if not the most traditional uniform sets in the league. Since scrapping the brown away and grey alternate jerseys after 2011, Valpo has had a classic feel to their uniform set. The Crusaders are counted among the ranks of Nike teams, putting them in the majority in that category in the Horizon League. Valpo uses the primary league logo on both the home white and road yellow jerseys, placing it on the right hip of the shorts. At home, the logo is printed in yellow; on the road, in white.

Wright State Raiders
Wright State is one of just two teams in the 9-team Horizon League affiliated with Nike, but having their jerseys made by Jordan. Additionally, the Raiders will be the last team in this post with three or more jerseys. On all Wright State jerseys (the white homes, green roads, and yellow alternates), the primary league logo is printed on the left hip of the shorts, in green, white, and green, respectively. An interesting note on the alternate jerseys for Wright State is that the NOB is below the player's number, not above it as is normal.

Youngstown State Penguins

The final team in the Horizon League is the outlier of these statistics: Youngstown State is the only team in the league not to wear a league logo anywhere on their jerseys. Both the white home jerseys and red road jerseys do not contain the league logo; not on either hip, not on the collarbone, nowhere. Youngstown State is also the only team in the league to not have a wordmark on the front of their jerseys, instead opting for a large letter "Y".

That'll be all for today, and I'll try to have another conference done on the same topic sometime in the next week or so.