Summer thread- Why do so many old college mascots look similar?

[Mr Janny]

Specifically, the grumpy sailor look-



Turns out it was one guy, Arthur Evans who went around selling mascot designs to different schools. Some of them are straight carbon copies of others, but many of them stuck to a theme. It's something that I've noticed in the past, but never really thought about how it came to be.

24 old-timey sailor animal logos, ranked

A bunch of mid-20th century logos are extremely similar, but we can find key differences.

www.bannersociety.com

 

[CloniesForLife]

Oregon is a straight Donald Duck rip off. Wouldn't be surprised to hear Disney sued them.

 

[CloniesForLife]

There are 3 bears that just have different color and facial expressions but otherwise they're the same lol

 

[Mr Janny]

Oregon is a straight Donald Duck rip off. Wouldn't be surprised to hear Disney sued them.

That tracks, because I believe the artist, Arthur Evans was a former Disney employee

 

[KidSilverhair]

There are 3 bears that just have different color and facial expressions but otherwise they're the same lol

To be fair, two of them are just different versions of the Cal mascot, as they both say “CAL” on the cap. Is the “B” one Baylor? (I can see the one in the upper right is, is that also the one on the lower right?)

 

[Bigman38]

Specifically, the grumpy sailor look-



Turns out it was one guy, Arthur Evans who went around selling mascot designs to different schools. Some of them are straight carbon copies of others, but many of them stuck to a theme. It's something that I've noticed in the past, but never really thought about how it came to be.

24 old-timey sailor animal logos, ranked

A bunch of mid-20th century logos are extremely similar, but we can find key differences.

www.bannersociety.com

That interesting. Makes a lot of sense, I can't remember what class it was but we spent a lot of time going over different types of websites and seeing how they are all just copies of each other for the same reason.

 

[exCyDing]

Oregon is a straight Donald Duck rip off. Wouldn't be surprised to hear Disney sued them.

Oregon and Disney have a special agreement going back to the 1940s.

The Oregon Duck - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[JP4CY]

BYU was wearing that throwback a lot last year on coach's clothing.

 

[Farnsworth]

What the hell is that VPI thing in the top row? That thing is hideous.

 

[JM4CY]

That Rice owl looks like a pompous ass hole. I want to slap the hoo out of his hoot.

 

[JP4CY]

What the hell is that VPI thing in the top row? That thing is hideous.

Virginia Tech

 

[IASTATE07]

What the hell is that VPI thing in the top row? That thing is hideous.

Looks like a hokie.

 

[theshadow]

To be fair, two of them are just different versions of the Cal mascot, as they both say “CAL” on the cap. Is the “B” one Baylor? (I can see the one in the upper right is, is that also the one on the lower right?)

The lower right is probably Brown.

 

[BoxsterCy]

It's a small population. Lots of inbreeding so they all look the same.

 

[alarson]

It's a small population. Lots of inbreeding so they all look the same.

That explains the SEC ones, not sure about the others

 

[Bocy]

It was interesting to learn the background and that the same artist did the bulk of these. I was unaware or had ever noticed that there were so many that were similar (and the many flat out copy/paste jobs, but with different colors).

The Virginia Tech turkey is hilarious!

 

[CyCrazy]

NcState and UNC are the best, but the hokie is pretty sweet.

 

[BMWallace]

Louisville used this from 1963-78. We started using the second Walking Cy in 1978.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Big Red Bear looks like he's up to something.