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Fresno State considered changing gang-appropriated Bulldogs logo


Waffles

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From the New York Times:

The mascot now plays a double role as football icon and gang symbol. Confusing the two can have fatal consequences. In 2011, Stephen Maciel, a father of four who the police said had no gang affiliation, was shot and killed by a Bulldogs rival in a liquor store parking lot. Maciel was wearing a red Fresno State shirt.

The gang’s embrace of the bulldog logo has put university administrators in an excruciatingly awkward position amid a gang crisis that has claimed hundreds of lives. The situation has vexed them, even as sales of Fresno State apparel and merchandise increased tenfold since the gang took hold in the city. The university has considered dropping the logo, and has approached law enforcement officials for guidance.

Unsettled by the sudden rise of thousands of violent gang members wearing their university’s apparel, officials at California State University, Fresno, requested a meeting with law enforcement officials in 2007. They were considering changing the logo and wanted advice.

“There was considerable discussion at that time about whether or not they should change the logo or the mascot away from being a bulldog because of the fact that we had this Bulldog gang in Fresno that had become notorious,” Dyer, the police chief, said. “My advice was absolutely not. Do not touch the logo. How dare these gang members think they can hijack the mascot from our university? If you change it, the gang wins.”

There's also these logo-related tidbits:

To grow its numbers, the Bulldogs gang recruited around elementary schools and high schools. In the early 1990s, the gang presence was so big among youth that city schools banned Fresno State Bulldogs clothing on school property. The ban was soon extended to Georgetown Hoyas apparel, which also features a bulldog.

“It is unfortunate because we work hard to create a college-going culture in our schools, but we just cannot have students wearing this stuff; it causes too many problems,” said Tim Liles, the principal at Sunnyside High School in Fresno. Schools here eventually had to ban all attire featuring professional and college sports logos.

The gang is certainly not the first criminal enterprise to usurp the symbol of a sports team. The F.B.I. keeps a list of dozens of gangs and the sports logos they have commandeered. For example, the Crips often wear Dallas Cowboys gear, and the Bloods opt for Chicago Bulls gear.

“We find gangs using sports teams’ logos and clothing as gang identification to be very common,” said Whitney Malkin, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. “Most gangs choose to use sports paraphernalia with the same color schemes as their gang or paraphernalia of teams that originate from the area that they operate in.”

The whole article is a great, great read.

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Can we just scrap the whole city of Fresno?

We'll just scrap you instead.
HA! Sorry. I grew up just outside of Reno in a pretty Wolf Pack crazy town, so I've gotta get my shots in at the Bulldogs when I can :P

Its far safer to wear Fresno St. gear around here than LA Dodgers (Serenios gang) or Nebraska (Nortenios gang). Those are the state wide gangs. Bulldogs are just a spin off of the nortenios.

I've heard for most of my life that Fresno State gear was sketchy to wear in certain parts of California due to its link to gang activity, but I've never personally seen Fresno State gear linked to crime anywhere off of Blackstone, though. I remember them spewing that to us in DARE in like the 4th grade. Raiders gear and Dodgers gear though, I have seen more often, but that's more obvious and more widespread throughout the state.

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On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
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Can we just scrap the whole city of Fresno?

We'll just scrap you instead.
HA! Sorry. I grew up just outside of Reno in a pretty Wolf Pack crazy town, so I've gotta get my shots in at the Bulldogs when I can :P

Its far safer to wear Fresno St. gear around here than LA Dodgers (Serenios gang) or Nebraska (Nortenios gang). Those are the state wide gangs. Bulldogs are just a spin off of the nortenios.

I've heard for most of my life that Fresno State gear was sketchy to wear in certain parts of California due to its link to gang activity, but I've never personally seen Fresno State gear linked to crime anywhere off of Blackstone, though. I remember them spewing that to us in DARE in like the 4th grade. Raiders gear and Dodgers gear though, I have seen more often, but that's more obvious and more widespread throughout the state.

We were right behind the Nevada bench at the last Fresno game, we had so many mullet chants for you guys. I'm white so no one thinks I'm in a gang when I wear Fresno St. stuff. I guess if you're mexican or black and in a bad neighborhood they might shoot you. It's still safer to wear bulldog gear in a bad neighborhood than anything royal blue.

Fresno St. blackout game vs Nevada. I wore red. I don't wear black for the sake of black.

560085_10201166799905366_1830654219_n.jp

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Won't the gangs just wear the new bulldog logo, unless Fresno just uses a F logo.

Fresno State has the FS logo used on the baseball caps.

fresno-state-bulldogs-alternate-logo-2-p

I kind of wish they'd bring back the cursive "Bulldogs" on the helmets...not that'd it would solve anything gang-related...

Smart is believing half of what you hear. Genius is knowing which half.

 

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Can we just scrap the whole state of California?

.

I wouldn't wish living in Tennessee on my most hated enemy.

Tennessee is quite nice, ever been?

SMU didn't think Fresno played very gang-like in last year's Hawaii Bowl (SMU - 43 Fresno - 10).

FsQiF2W.png

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Won't the gangs just wear the new bulldog logo, unless Fresno just uses a F logo.

Fresno State has the FS logo used on the baseball caps.

fresno-state-bulldogs-alternate-logo-2-p

I kind of wish they'd bring back the cursive "Bulldogs" on the helmets...not that'd it would solve anything gang-related...

That's Fresno's best looking logo for my 1/50th of a dollar. It'd look even better on their helmets.

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Won't the gangs just wear the new bulldog logo, unless Fresno just uses a F logo.

Fresno State has the FS logo used on the baseball caps.

fresno-state-bulldogs-alternate-logo-2-p

I kind of wish they'd bring back the cursive "Bulldogs" on the helmets...not that'd it would solve anything gang-related...

We used the throwback script logo helmet for homecoming. It looked great alone but not w/ the current unis.

1mAnzL.AuSt.8.jpeg

I'll take that over this SDSU/Rutgers look we had

BIAXF.AuSt.8.jpeg

I'll consider moving to tennessee when it has beaches, mountains as big as the sierra nevadas, disneyland, and fresno st. football games. 1-3 hour drive from fresno to all those things. along w/ SF(I hate SF, it's cold, but my wife likes it). I do think the Vols unis look awesome. It would be nice to see a game there.

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I'll consider moving to tennessee when it has beaches, mountains as big as the sierra nevadas, disneyland, and fresno st. football games. 1-3 hour drive from fresno to all those things. along w/ SF(I hate SF, it's cold, but my wife likes it). I do think the Vols unis look awesome. It would be nice to see a game there.

Never been to Fresno, but as a general rule of thumb, when the primary selling point of a place is how CLOSE it is to cool things, it tends to suck.

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I'll consider moving to tennessee when it has beaches, mountains as big as the sierra nevadas, disneyland, and fresno st. football games. 1-3 hour drive from fresno to all those things. along w/ SF(I hate SF, it's cold, but my wife likes it). I do think the Vols unis look awesome. It would be nice to see a game there.

Never been to Fresno, but as a general rule of thumb, when the primary selling point of a place is how CLOSE it is to cool things, it tends to suck.

Its a regualr city w/ good parts like the river park and sucky parts like downtown minus the AAA stadium. Fresno is the 6th largest city in CA. over 500,000 people. It would be like me saying all of Chicago/LA suck b/c they have lots of shootings. My guess it most of the shootings are in the bad area and there are good areas that don't have them. I would say living in Wisconsin even though I'm a Packers owner would suck b/c it's so damn cold. Lowest highs we have here are 48, 49 degrees. It hasn't snowed here since 1999. It's only jacket/pants weather here early/mid dec-late feb, rest of the year shorts t-shirts for the most part.

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