college American Union of Interscholastic Athletics (Minnakota 8/18)

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On 4/22/2024 at 7:36 PM, Blindsay said:

and I concur that high level math hurts

Definitely!

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As previously mentioned, next up is the Ft Dummer Atlanteans

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Uniforms

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Background

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          Fort Dummer State University has its origins closely tied to its former sister school, Lyndon State College. Both were founded in 1911, one being a one-year technical school and the other being a one-year teacher training school. Fort Dummer State was designated as the technical school. By 1944, both would be made into colleges, with Fort Dummer being named Brattleboro Technical College and Lyndon State being named Lyndon Teachers College. In 1961, the Vermont State Colleges System (VSCS) was founded and brought in both schools, with Brattleboro Technical College changing to Brattleboro State College. In 1964, Brattleboro State was put up for university status with the introduction of their nuclear engineering department, the first in the state. After becoming an accredited university in the state, they left the VSCS and began operating closely with the only other public university in the state, the University of Vermont. The only controversy was the name. The state legislature wanted to change the name to either Southern Vermont University or Vermont State University while the city leaders and school administration wanted to simply change the name to Brattleboro State University. After months of infighting and threats to pull funding and university status, a name was selected. The name was changed to reflect Brattleboro’s historic landmark, Fort Dummer State Park, and would be named Fort Dummer State University. Aside from that snafu, the school was on a rather positive trajectory. The school continued to focus on more technical majors, becoming one of the leaders in what we now call STEM fields in Northeast public universities as they sought to add more and more majors lacking from the University of Vermont. Amongst the biggest projects the university has undergone is with the attempt to build a nuclear reactor on campus after years of helping facilitate and conduct research at the Yankee facility in Vernon, which shut down in 2014. Today, the nuclear engineering program remains the university’s crown jewel with 10% of graduates receiving a diploma from that department. The enrollment remains steady at around 9,000 to 10,000 undergraduate students with around 500 nuclear research students. 
          Athletics has always been a major part of the school’s identity. The first team to compete was in the school’s first year as BTS where a group of boys created a club football team who would compete against local high schools and athletic clubs. This first club team called themselves the Vermont Atlantis Club, either as a reference to the recently flooded Fort Dummer or a confusion with ‘Athletic’. Either way, Fort Dummer athletics and the idea of Atlantis have always been tied closely together. The first school sponsored teams were basketball, baseball, and football in 1964. They operated in the Yankee Conference as the Ft Dummer State Atlanteans. They would compete in the Yankee conference up until the NCAA divided their members into three divisions. Unable to financially keep up with the Division II teams, Fort Dummer State sought membership with the NESCAC in 1973. In the smaller division, Fort Dummer had a much easier time competing, although they never found much national success. By the 1990s, they had become a mid-tier conference team in all of their sports and had begun losing millions. In 2010, the athletics program was shut down amid financial hardships related to the recession. However, the alumni and town fought hard to bring the sports teams back as both a source of school pride as well as a supplement to the town’s economy. In 2012 a group of donors were able to finance the revival of the athletics program, which led to an invite from the AUIA. In the AUIA, Fort Dummer was able to continue a rivalry with former Yankee conference foe, Green Mountain Central, as well as forge new ones with the likes of Pebblewater and UBerk.
 

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[HobbesTHero]

Really like the Mushers logos. Good job on that.

[kb105]

On 4/29/2024 at 10:42 AM, HobbesTHero said:

Really like the Mushers logos. Good job on that.

Appreciate it, the primary took a while to make sure all the proportions looked correct to the actual Alaskan Malamute.

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Before I release the first team of a new conference, I thought I should show the logo for said conference. The Cascadia Interscholastic Conference, or Cascadia XII/12 for short, houses twelve teams across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. The conference is headquartered in Seattle, which is also where the championship game/tournament for football (Lumen Field) and hockey (Climate Pledge Arena for semis and championship, accesso ShoWare Center in Kent and Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett split the first three rounds) are held. The championship tournament for basketball is held in Portland's Moda Center while the baseball tournament is alternated between Melacula Field in Idaho Falls, ID and Dehler Park in Billings, MT.

 

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Uniforms

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Background

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          Matanuska Valley University first began classes in 1921, starting off as the Wasilla Creek Schoolhouse and mostly served miners and other adults as well as local school children. In 1938, a second building was added to the town and the school was renamed the Wasilla Upper School (taught the equivalent to 10th grade to 2nd year of college) and the Wasilla Lower School. Over the years, the structure of the schools would change and in 1965, the first college was built in Wasilla, Matanuska Valley College. Unlike traditional 4-year colleges, MVC implemented a hybrid apprenticeship-college where they had 5-year programs, focusing mainly on the oil/natural gas and agriculture sectors. Beginning in the late 1970s, MVC began transitioning to a more normal model of a 4 year college and embraced programs that would feed into the industries of nearby Anchorage. In 1988, MVC would become a four-year university, called Matanuska Valley University, as well as opening multiple new schools, among them being business, engineering, and aeronautics. By the early 2000s, MVU housed the state's highest rated Colleges of Aeronautics as well as one of the best Aerospace Engineering departments west of the Rockies. Although being a private university, they now hold the most students attending on campus in Alaska with around 17,500.
          Athletics at Matanuska Valley actually predate its MVC days all the way to 
World War II. The first football game in the school’s history is recorded as a December 1943 match against Fort Richardson in Anchorage. This is also the origins of the Mushers name, as a heavy snowstorm fell the night before the players were set to leave and the railway would not run. A handful of players, having experience in dog sledding, traveled around 33 miles over two days carrying 20 players, coaches, and staff along with the equipment. The Mushers went on to tie the military men with a score of 6-6. Seeing as the average age of the team was 15 years old and the Fort Richardson team had multiple officers over the age of 25 playing against them, the school claims the result as a win. Despite football being the first exhibition played by students, it was hockey that was first sanctioned by the school in 1978 where they played outside of a sanctioned league of conference, instead playing local colleges and even some semi-pro teams. Administration had a desire to expand their athletics department as early as the mid 80s, and basketball, baseball, skiing, and rifling were all added by the mid 90s. Football, despite being heavily pushed by their longtime athletic director, was never added, as no other college in the state sponsors a team and travel would have been very difficult. All sports were eventually phased out in 1998 as the department began experiencing financial problems and the school did not want to commit any more funding to the seemingly pointless endeavor. Despite the 14 year hiatus, MVU was very excited to join the AUIA, alongside fellow Alaskan university, Ketchikan. For the first time ever, the Mushers had a varsity football team, who after a few years of sorting out their program have begun to gain traction with a conference title and a few tournament appearances. Baseball and Hockey have also made a few postseason runs as well as conference titles, while basketball has yet to break through with a conference title.

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Football Matchups

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*Some notes

 - Week 0 matchup is a kickoff classic held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas

 - Week 18 is the Quarterfinals matchup (Round 2 of 4) at Lumen Field in Seattle. The field design is replicated across the playoffs (location and team endzones changed accordingly), minus the championship game.

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 - Primary Logo: The primary logo has a double meaning. The obvious is that it is a diesel piston for Cummins, who was founded and still headquartered in Columbus, IN, famous for their improvements on the diesel engine and a leader in that industry. The second meaning is one of civic pride, as the piston is also a torch, with the flame shape and color modeled after the one seen on the 

state flag of Indiana.

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Uniforms

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History

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          Indiana Crossroads University opened in the fall of 1959 as Crossroads College, completely funded by J. Irwin Miller and the Cummins Foundation. Crossroads first offered just five degrees, architecture, business management, accounting, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering. The first few years saw great growth, although the school took a major hit in both faculty and enrollment as IU-PU Columbus was formed and the better benefits and lower tuition caused many professors and students to switch/transfer over. This led to a few years of what some people associated with Crossroads call the ‘Dark Ages’ as the school struggled to stay afloat and would likely have gone bankrupt if not for the Miller family and other Cummins executives influx of cash to the endowment. By 1985, the two schools were able to coexist peacefully and Crossroads began to flourish. In 1992, the school established a state of the art alternative fuel research facility, funded wholly by the Cummins company and began the process for university accreditation, which they received in 1998. With the accreditation, Crossroads College would become Indiana Crossroads University and would thus begin their ascension to be the largest private university in the state with an enrollment of around 15,000 in 2018.
          Crossroads has competed athletically since their first year as a college in baseball, football and basketball (hockey was later added in the 90s). Their greatest period of success prior to the AUIA began during the academic ‘Dark Age’ as enrollment requirements were slightly lowered. They were first members of the Indiana Collegiate Conference and competed in the NAIA. In 1971, Crossroads made the move to the Mid-Central College Conference (now Crossroads League) where they continued to be dominant. However, their dominance of the conference along with being the only nonsectarian colleges led to friction among the fan bases and the institutions alike. This tension culminated after the 1993-94 season when Crossroads swept the conference titles and was voted out from the conference (they also won the Central States Collegiate Hockey league title and ACHA title, both of which they had begun competition in the previous season as a new program). This booting out of the MCCC led to Crossroads finding a new home with fellow Indiana institution, IU-Southeast, in the River States Conference, where they would continue to compete in until 2012. The RSC allowed for stiffer competition as Crossroads would not win a conference title until 2002 in football. That would end up being the one and only conference title for the school, although they had plenty of opportunities. That is why Crossroads made the jump to the AUIA, where they hoped to have better success, which they immediately saw in the form of postseason appearances in both hockey and basketball in the first year.

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Football Matchups

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Background

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          Hawai’i State is a rather new school, as it was only started in the early 2000s. With a considerable amount of growth from 1950 to 1990, the state legislature decided to create a second state university system, one that specifically focused on the STEM fields. There were three separate plans for how to build this new university system: Charter a new university, branch off an existing institution from the University of Hawai’i System, or take over a previously private university. Soon after these plans were laid out, the second option was quickly shot down by the heads of the system who feared a second reorganization in 20 years would negatively impact enrollment, leaving the creation of a new school and the state control of a private school as the only remaining options. The private university that made the final rounds of decision making was Central Pacific, located on the island of Maui, and many representatives pushed for this in the beginning, seeing as they boasted one of the nation’s top marine sciences programs as well as the state’s only Naval ROTC program. The possible location of the new school was decided to be on the island of Hawai’i in Kailua-Kona. Ultimately, the legislature voted to charter a new school that would open in the fall of 2000 as Hawai’i State University with the planned opening of multiple community colleges across the main islands. 
          In athletics, the teams never got off to a footing in the Pacific West Conference. Not yet sponsoring football or hockey, basketball was the best sport, reaching the conference tournament championship game twice, but most years they were lucky to reach the .500 mark. Coming into the AUIA, the trend continues as no sport has reached the postseason as of yet, although many programs have begun to make a strong push in the transfer portal with bringing back home talent that opted to go to the mainland right out of high school. In their current Eureka Conference home, the Monks have fostered rivalries with a few southern California teams as well as the continuation of the rivalry with Central Pacific. Their only out of conference rivalry happens to be NIE.
          The colors of Hawai’i State comes from the school arboretum, as it houses one of the largest collections of orange hibiscus flowers in the state. The orange hibiscus flowers are also used to create traditional leis given out for special events, such as the first home game the school had back in 2000. The mascot comes from the state mammal, the Hawaiian Monk Seal. 
 

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Football Matchups

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Uniforms

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Background

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          Watford College was founded as a direct result of the oil boom in the Bakken Formation in western North Dakota. Prior to the boom, Watford was the site of a research institute to help aid in the use of fracking and its environmental impacts in the 2000s. Once the actual boom occurred in the 2010s, the state realized that the western portion of the state would need more development as populations increased. The research institute was privately operated until late 2011 when the state bought it in order to expand it into a two-year community college, with plans to turn Williston State College into a four-year university. Later that year, the state education department decided building a new college in order to expand another made no sense and opted to just make Watford City home to the new four-year university. The new campus is still under construction, but the first phase was completed in early 2017, in time for the start of the 2017-18 school year. Currently, the only school in operation is engineering where students and researchers aid both the oil industry as well as the city planning in the area to update infrastructure, which was also a part of the overall bid when building the new university. Watford College is expected to complete phase two, which brings new departments into the fold and will make the school into Watford                               University, by the end of the 2025 spring semester.
          Seeing as the school was conjured up in a little over 5 years, the athletic history is lacking. The local school-age children were able to choose the mascot in a ‘name the team’ competition, with the winner receiving VIP access to the first football game. The top three names were selected by a committee of school administration, local officials, and local business leaders to be voted on by the public. The top names included were the Riggers (this was ultimately dropped due to possible confusion with other words), the Werewolves (the high school mascot is the Wolves), the Wheat, and the Wasps (the replacement for the Riggers, take on the state insect, the honeybee). As you well know, the Watford Wasps won with 62% of the vote. The colors were not up for public vote, as all of the administration decided early on for gold and green (many of them were alums of North Dakota State), with the official shades being marigold and pepper green.
          The next order of business was deciding what type of competition the school would face, namely would they join the NCAA or the NAIA. The school originally petitioned to join DII in the NCAA, but were told they would only be accepted as a member of DIII with a 5 year probationary period for post season play and a 15 year probationary period to move divisions, seeing as they hadn’t even held classes as of yet. Discouraged, administration intended to seek membership in the North Star Athletic Association before being extended an invite by the AUIA in their first round of expansion. 
          Being slated in the Plains States Conference, Watford has had the unpleasant opportunity to compete against two of the best programs in the country in Dakota A&M and Minnesota Mines, although in a few sports they have become respectable. Championships have been elusive, however they are becoming within reach.

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Background

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          Housatonic Valley has its origins in the Scoville Library building as classes first began in 1895. The school was an extension of the Hotchkiss School, a boarding school that opened up in 1891, that served as the secondary education for Salisbury and the surrounding areas. Simply named Hotchkiss College, it set out to fulfill Maria Hotchkiss’ original intention for the boarding school, educating local young men for free. In 1904, Hotchkiss College moved from the library building as more students began joining from outside Salisbury and student housing was needed. The new campus was nestled inside a valley in the Wack Forest along White Hollow Brook. In 1943, the college became co-educational as many prospective students were being drafted. Along with the admittance of female undergraduates, the school changed its name to Housatonic Valley College after a falling out with the leadership of the Hotchkiss School. Housatonic Valley expanded through the 1970s to a total enrollment of around 7,000 students. Around this time, the college began growing its academic offerings, leading to its ascension to university status. The now named Housatonic Valley University was the only university, public or private, in Litchfield County, and the northwestern portion of the state as a whole. Through the 1990s, the school contracted down to an enrollment of 6,000 before increasing up to a height of 10,000 in 2005. The school didn’t just expand in enrollment, but also in land and buildings as a new business school along with a brand new athletics campus was built around Best Pond.
          Athletics competition began in 1897 with a baseball team whose first game came against Yale, who promptly beat them 37-2. The next game in HVU records wouldn’t come until 1958 on the gridiron where the newly named Smithies began competition as a College Division independent, a status they would hold until 1970, when they joined the Middle Atlantic Conference. The MAC was not a rather perfect fit, both geographically and in competition. In their decade and a half in the conference, the Smithies failed to ever obtain a conference title and never got to participate in postseason play. In 1984, they left the MAC to charter a new conference, the Commonwealth Coast Conference where they would begin to become better and better on the field. The high point was in the 90s, when the CCC ran through Housatonic Valley, winning a grand total of 45 regular season and tournament conference titles across all sports. This dominance did bleed slightly into the 2000s, however began to wane by the 2010s. Their run in the 90s got them invited into the AUIA, slated to join other New England teams in their third ever conference.

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Football Matchups

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Background

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          In the late 19th century, Marquette County housed a considerable number of Swedish immigrants, with Ishpeming housing one-third of the population from Atvidaberg, Sweden, alone. Among these immigrants were many skilled workers, who decided to join together to start a new school for other Swedes in Ishpeming in 1883. The school closely resembles modern-day apprenticeship programs as students would work for their instructors and other tradesmen during the day, and would go to school at night. Locally known as the Swede School, classes initially only consisted of immigrant students and teachers. As more and more Swedes moved out into surrounding areas and states for work and land, the leaders began transitioning to a more traditional post-secondary model as well as opening up to English speaking faculty and students. The first college classes were held in 1894, located in the high school building as well as neighboring homes and boasted an attendance of 96 students. By 1898, the attendance increased to over 250 students, and a more suitable campus was needed. The next location for the now named Swede Secondary School was located in three, four classroom buildings on the shores of Lake Bacon, where SSS would call home until 1912, when the two of the three buildings experienced collapsed roofs due to heavy snow accumulation. With those buildings out of commission, the school struggled for a couple of years to host classes in the remaining building and local homes before shutting its doors in the spring of 1914. Ishpeming would be without a college for less than a decade, as in 1923 former faculty of the Swede Secondary School came together to form a new college, this time located west of the city around Rock Lake. The new school was seen as an extension of the previous school, and as such wanted to pay homage to the original founders of the school. With this direction, the new college would be named New Atvidaberg College, named after the home of the founders. The school started off with around 900 students and a faculty of 20. In the coming years, NAC would struggle through the depression years and WWII, when many thought the school would face the same demise as the original college. However, New Atvidaberg proved to be resilient and stayed afloat with an enrollment of 1,500 heading into the 1950s. In that decade, the school would see immense growth, expanding to 7,500 students and purchasing land up to the shores of Deer Lake. The next few decades continued the upward trajectory, albeit at a more deliberate pace as the end of the 90s would see the largest enrollment at around 12,000 students and the modern boundaries of the campus. The 2000s saw a contraction in students to around 10,000, however the school would establish new graduate programs in medicine, chemistry, and engineering, leading to their establishment as a university. This brought along a rebranding where the name was shortened to the current form, Atvida University. The 2010s saw enrollment reach the 1990s levels, as the current student population is around 11,000 undergraduates along with nearly 2,500 graduate students.
          In athletics, the Youpers have a much less tumultuous history, having only competed in one primary conference prior to joining the AUIA, the Midwest Conference. Competition began in 1923 with the football team finishing 2nd in the conference, while baseball and basketball both finished last. Hockey also finished last among the Western Collegiate hockey teams. Over the years, the teams remained in the idle of the pack in the Midwest Conference as hockey bounced around being an independent until joining the MCHL in 1951, becoming an independent again in 1964 when the NCAA was split into the University and College divisions, then ultimately joining the CCHA in 1971, where they would stay until 2012. That middle of the pack continued into the AUIA, for the most part. In hockey, the Youpers have had some success, winning conference titles in 2016, 2019, and 2022, along with winning back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022.

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[kb105]

This week is an update for Ole' Scott's. Here is the original post with the background, football matchups, and former version(s).

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Update Description

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Branding:

A full typeface was added to complement the number set, which in turn de-emphasized the Scott's script. The new typeface also led to the new secondary, S-arrowhead logo.

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Football: This set stays mostly the same. The helmet finish is now similar to the NY Jets and some black trim is added to the numbers and sleeve cuffs. TV Numbers are also added to the shoulders, although the shoulder caps retain the alternating arrowhead pattern. The biggest change is the pant stripe as the arrow gets an 180° turn and thinned out a bit to create triple stripe (w/g/w) that is carried over from the white pants to the green and black set, as well. 

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Basketball:

Basketball gets more of a vintage look as the arrow triple stripe carries over, replacing the old single stripe arrow that pointed down. The wordmarks are also updated to the new font as well as receiving a small drop shadow that is replicated on the numbers. Black trim is also removed on the main sets while green and white are increased on the alternate.

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Hockey:

Hockey's biggest change is the chest logo using being the new S-Arrowhead and the black alternate receiving more white.

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Baseball:

Baseball might be the most drastic as the piping is changed from the one color to matching the sock stripe pattern and with three new jerseys. Like hockey, the S-Arrowhead is the preferred logo, adorning all four hats, while the Scott's script is relegated to being on just one jersey. 

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Background

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          ASU-Ketchikan is the flagship university of Alaska’s second university system. Established in the fall of 1997, Ketchikan is built southeast of Ketchikan International Airport and is only accessible to the city of Ketchikan via ferry across the Tongass Narrows. The school was the culmination of many years of looking for a location for the new state university as the state continued to grow as well as wanting to allow for more opportunities for young Alaskans to receive a college education within the state. Ketchikan was chosen as it is the southernmost city in the state as well as the campus location on Gravina Island is in close proximity to an international airport that connects to other Alaskan cities as well as Seattle. Also, Ketchikan was an existing branch campus of UA-Southeast, which is where the first three years of classes were originally held. In 2000, the new campus was completed and classes began in the fall. Like some campuses, ASU-Ketchikan operates as its own city and most of the campus is not academic buildings (student/faculty housing, independently operated stores, gas stations, a grocery store, etc.). Currently, the campus encompasses around 565 acres and is continuously expanding. UA Southeast Ketchikan campus was transferred over to the Alaska State University System, leading to their degree programs being transferred over as well along with the addition of new colleges of Engineering and Arts & Humanities, as well as a new department of anthropology. The school is still relatively small with only 2,500 students, which is understandable considering its age and location. The next phase of construction is to build a bridge from Gravina Island to Revillagigedo Island (where Ketchikan is located), either directly across the Tongass Narrows or going across Pennock Island and using two separate bridges.
          In athletics, they did not have varsity athletics until joining the AUIA in 2012, as there are no land routes available to them to travel to other schools. Discussions were had many times since their opening of their permanent campus in 2000, but they could never garner enough funds, publicly or privately, to set up both facilities and means to recruit and house athletes. Since joining, the Totems have seen varying levels of success. In 2014 and 2015, they reached the football postseason as lower seeded, at-large bids while basketball and baseball never reached the postseason. Hockey has far and away had the most success, having won 7 conference titles in two two-peats and one three-peat. Despite their conference dominance, they have failed to win it all.

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[Blindsay]

I like to think that ASUK has a tradition where they all dress up as salmon and pledge to do a polar plunge for every win they get in football. And they sing an edited version of the SpongeBob Theme as their hype song.

[kb105]

Didn't have access to my computer this past weekend, so this one was a little late. With that being said, happy 4th to all those who celebrate!

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Background

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           Founded in 1969, Heartland Central is the sister university to Governors State University which is located in the Chicago Area. Both were founded to serve underserved students in smaller class sizes. Initially being a two-year college, Heartland Central opened up for students in the fall of 1973, unlike GSU who opened up two-years earlier than the original plans set out for. The first enrollment was around 600 freshmen as well as around 150 transfer sophomores. By 1983, the school was outpacing GSU as it grew to around 2,500 students and school and government leaders began discussing expanding to a four-year institution. This disproportionate rate of growth could be attributed to the two different styles of teachings with HC following traditional teaching models while GSU was more experimental. In 1985, Heartland Central began offering online courses and in 1988, became a university. Initially, the plan was for Heartland to join the University of Illinois System and changed the name to University of Illinois - Heartland, but this plan was ultimately nixed before the school year began. Over the next few years, Heartland’s online course selection grew and soon online students vastly outnumbered in-person students. Currently, Heartland houses about 4,000 students on-campus while boasting an enrollment of 40,000 online students, being the largest online state university in the nation.
           On the athletics front, Heartland began in the fall of 1989, competing in the CCIW (College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin). Heartland Never truly got the ball rolling and was a rather mediocre organization for most of its time, all the while being a cultural outcast as it was the only public school in the conference. In 1997, after only 8 years in the CCIW, Heartland left to join the NAIA Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC), where despite still being the only public school they were welcomed more warmly. In the first years of the HAAC, Heartland was able to dominate with a majority D3 rosters, winning a conference title in football, one in baseball, and 4 in basketball. After the first 5 years, football and baseball began to falter and moved to be the middle of the pack while basketball remained highly competitive winning another 4 conference titles up to 2012. Since joining the Frontier Lakes Conference in the AUIA, the story for football and baseball have remained the same while basketball has also gone down after making the first 4 post season tournaments and winning a conference championship in 2014.

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          Originally named Caspar State College, the location in Casper was chosen as a consolation for losing out to Cheyenne for the 4-year university. Caspar State first opened its doors in 1915 as part of the state of Wyoming’s 25th year anniversary celebrations, alongside the school in Cheyenne. CSC was just the state’s third public school and its first community college. Being more centrally located in the state, CSC opened the doors for prospective students in more rural areas to gain higher education without traveling to the extreme southeast corner of Wyoming. Despite being in Casper, Wyoming, the school spells its name as Caspar. This is because of the old Fort Caspar, for which the town was named but is spelled differently than due to a spelling error on its application for incorporation. This spelling has remained throughout the school’s history, including its elevation to university status in 1945 (Casper College was opened the same year to maintain the community college and continues to work closely with CSU). The school continued to grow with the city, eventually becoming the largest of the state’s three universities with an enrollment of 12,000 in the 1980s. Over time, the enrollment has decreased to the present average of 8,500 over the past decade. The most common majors revolve around the hospitality and oil sectors. 
          Official athletics did not start until 2009 when Caspar State joined the Frontier Conference of the NAIA. Being all brand new programs, their short time in the NAIA were rather lacking in success and thus didn’t make any splashes in their first conference. Since joining the AUIA, however, they have managed two conference titles, one in football (2014) and one in hockey (2020) along with a hockey National Title in 2023.
          The mascot of Caspar State officially comes from the school ‘maintaining the spirit of Fort Caspar’, with the school claiming to have been using the mascot since 1943 but the oldest printed use being only in 1949. This discrepancy is important as Caspar State was a part of a series of lawsuits in 1986 over their Spirit logo, which had been in use since 1964, by Harvey Publications. The lawsuit was dropped after it was revealed the copyrights were not renewed back in the 1950s. Since the initial 1963 version of their Caspar Spirit logo, it has been updated in 1998, 2009, and most recently in 2023. The first two versions were in black and white while in 2009, the new colors of Sapphire Blue, Mint Silver and White were added to the logo with black accents. In 2023, the black was replaced with Midnight Navy and the logo was given a more refined look as well as the use of the new athletics font.

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Background

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          Manitowoc first held classes in 1902 in the sanctuary of the newly erected St James Episcopal Church. In 1905, construction of a new campus had begun as the then named Manitowoc Episcopal College had outgrown the sanctuary for classes as all 400 students were eventually split across the many places of worship on Holy Hill. The new campus was opened for classes in the fall of 1907, located about 3 miles west of St James. Manitowoc Episcopal College was the first Episcopal affiliated college in Wisconsin since Racine College had closed its doors in 1889. Over the next five years, the campus was still expanding as well as the student population, as in 1912, the school had around 900 students. By the time construction was paused due to the US involvement in WWI, the campus had been built up to around 20 buildings on about 328 acres along the Manitowoc River. In 1965, Manitowoc Seminary expanded its academic offerings to be outside of religious studies. Unlike most other affiliated schools, Manitowoc was made a technical college rather than a liberal arts college with its first secular colleges of engineering and physical sciences. These new colleges grew the school to around 1,500 students as well as obtaining a university status, with the school being renamed the University of Manitowoc. Over the next 25 years, Manitowoc grew slowly to about 2,000 students as well as opening a new college of veterinary sciences. Today, Manitowoc has about 2,800 students on over 800 acres, giving it the distinction of one of the lowest enrollments in all of the AUIA. 
          Athletics at Manitowoc have their origin not on a field or a court or on ice, but rather in the waters of the Manitowoc River and Lake Michigan. Most of the first students had worked or were sons of those who worked in the city’s shipyards, leading to one of the more popular time killers being building and racing small sailboats down the Manitowoc River. In 1915, the school held its first sanctioned race from the school to the lighthouse in the harbor. By 1930, the school sent a delegation to the Boston Dinghy Challenge Cup, where they finished 10th out of 35 teams. The Manitowoc Sailing team competed against local yacht clubs across the shores of the Great Lakes, before becoming a club team in 1983. This sailing heritage helped fuel the founding of the schools first athletic programs in 1965, as their competitions against the yacht clubs served as fundraisers for the school, who would receive donations from some of the wealthier club members.
          In 1965, the Manitowoc Schooners began play in the Midwest Conference (today a NCAA DIII conference) alongside current conference-mate Atvida. In the Midwest Conference, they never quite got the ball rolling, failing to win a single conference title in any sport. In 1981, Manitowoc joined the Lake Michigan Conference with their football team operating as an independent and the hockey program being added as a member in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association. In 1983, football would join the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference as an affiliate member. In 2006, Manitowoc would return to the Midwest Conference in all but hockey, although their second stint was much more successful. In 2010-11, they won conference titles in both football and baseball, with football being their third in four seasons. However, in the fall of 2011, the NCAA began an investigation into illegal payments to players in football and basketball, leading Manitowoc to join the AUIA and the Frontier lakes Conference in 2012. Since joining the AUIA, they have only won one conference title, 2019 in football, as well as reaching the postseason just once more in 2022.

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Football Matchups

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[Blindsay]

The Script on Manitowoc’s Basketball Jerseys seems a little too small as both names are wordy. How about just having all three or at least the alt have just the M? Or maybe shorten the name on  the  jerseys to the Schoons? 

 

Or perhaps to appeal to the younger crowd, 

 

The ‘Woc?

[kb105]

On 7/23/2024 at 7:44 PM, Blindsay said:

The Script on Manitowoc’s Basketball Jerseys seems a little too small as both names are wordy. How about just having all three or at least the alt have just the M? Or maybe shorten the name on  the  jerseys to the Schoons? 

 

Or perhaps to appeal to the younger crowd, 

 

The ‘Woc?

I made the wordmarks taller to make them a bit more stout.

I don't want to shorten Schooners to Schoons, simply because Schooner is pronounced like Skooner, so Schoons would sound like Skoons, which sounds too similar to a much less desirable word. For the alternate, I used the city of Manitowoc's nickname, Manty.

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Let me know what you think, UBerk will come out later this week after I get my finals done.

 

[Blindsay]

Better! Best of luck on your finals

[kb105]

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Uniforms

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Background

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          The University of Berkshire was founded in 1899 by William Stanley Jr in order to research and test his electrical inventions as well as mentoring aspiring electrical engineers. Officially owned by his Stanley Electrical Manufacturing Company, the school’s operation was transferred to General Electric in 1903 when they purchased a controlling stake in SEMC. Under the operation of General Electric, Berkshire was radically changed from a research institution to an engineer pipeline for GE. In the 1920s, UBerk played a fundamental role in GE’s venture into radio and television and contained its very own broadcasting station for radio and TV by 1930. In 1945, General Electric officially made UBerk its own entity, however continued to make contributions and maintained a very close relationship with the school. In the 50s, Berkshire began adding new programs, including a College of the Arts and Communication, which now supplied the broadcasting station with student-employees as both on air talent and production crews. In 1974, Berkshire was made a state university, joining the University of Massachusetts System. In the 1980s, Berkshire purchased new land in both Dalton and Lanesborough for construction of a new athletic facility and for an arboretum and the new College of Environmental Sciences. Today, UBerk hosts 5,000 undergrads along with 1,000 graduate students with the top ranked departments being their electrical engineering, art, and journalism programs.
           Athletics began in 1974 as a part of the non-football Massachusetts State Colleges Athletic Conference (MASCAC), where football competed in the New England Football Conference (NEFC) and hockey competed in the ECAC-Northeast. In the MASCSC, basketball reigned supreme in different spurts, first from 1979-1987, winning 6 out of 9 conference titles, winning 3 out of 4 from 1993-1996, and finally winning 8 out of 11 from 2002-2012. Baseball was never great, but never bad winning just one conference title in 2000. In football, the late 80s was the school's heyday as they won their division from 1987-1991, winning the conference in ‘89 and ‘91. Since then, they slowly crept to mediocrity and finally to irrelevance after their head coach was poached by UMass after the 1991 season.
          Since joining the NEAU in 2012, basketball has had the most success with conference titles in ‘14, ‘15, and ‘17 along with an at-large bid in ‘16. The other sports have yet to make the national tournament, let alone win a conference title.
           The University of Berkshire is commonly referred to as UBerk in line with the other schools of the region such as UMass, UConn, and UPenn. This use became more popular in the 1970s, after UBerk became a public university. The nickname, Power comes from the school’s close relation with General Electric and the role of electric power in the school’s founding and growth while the ram mascot comes from Pittsfield wool industry of the 1800s and the use of Merino Sheep that were introduced from Spain in 1809. The colors were chosen for the representation of “the beautiful scenes of an autumn in the Berkshires", as described by winning submission for the mascot and colors back in 1974.

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Football Matchups

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[kb105]

This week is an update for a school from all the way back from 2021, the Millwood Screechers.

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Colors and logos remain the same, but the wordmark is simplified to be more block-like and loose the ornamentation.

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Uniforms

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Football

          The home set gets the 49ers treatment as the two stripes becomes three as well as the helmet and yellow pants adds white outer stripes to form a braisher pattern. The jerseys also add white in the form of white numbers. This updated look creates a more classic feel for a burgeoning football power. The away stays the same, for the most part. The stripe design fills the sleeve cap a bit more as well as a new brown pants option is added to the arsenal. The alternate is also mostly the same, the only changes being the number colors flipping and the helmet and primary pants option seeing a stripe pattern change from double to single.

          The playing surface and venue receive updates, as well, as the Bush's naming rights contract lapsed and the name reverted to Walker Stadium, in honor of local businessman, politician, and media personality,  the late Cas Walker. The field receives a pop of color with grass replacing the old field turf in 2022, and the endzones getting gold wordmarks in the endzone, although the design has been altered for select games in the past. 

Basketball

          The new basketball set is based on the previous alternate, which is also carried over. The only real change to the template is the eagle head logo being used on both side, as apposed to the script M being worn on the left thigh as well the collar and sleeve trim mimicking the side stripes, which in turn follows the football striping pattern. 

          The arena has also seen a name change, however this time due to Sevier County paying for a large addition onto the existing structure that acts as the county convention center. The court also sees a major facelift as the court is stained to look like the Smokies, which encompasses the Millwood campus.

Hockey

          The hockey uniforms closely resemble the football uniforms with striping and numbers, as well as the yellow pants and helmet getting the braisher stripe. The alternate is a simple color swap of the away set as well as maintaining the primary logo as the crest. The socks all now get a repeating stripe pattern that follows the hem stripping pattern.

          The hockey team received a brand spanking new ice barn as a part of the Sevier County Convention Center addition, with the hopes of introducing hockey to more of the state of Tennessee.

Baseball

          Baseball looks similar with the ball caps remaining the same in both appearance and designations, while the piping and wordmarks around a little bit. The home set adds headspoon double-layered piping as well as the Screechers wordmark being added. The away set also adds a headspoon piping, with the colors flipped to make the set as a whole more gold heavy. The home alternate is now just a gold alternate with the script M on the right chest and sans headspoon piping while the away carries the same color composition as the away, just brown instead of grey and with collar piping in place of a headspoon.

          The baseball stadium is also new, as the old stadium location now hosts the hockey venue as well as the county's convention center. The new ballpark is located down the mountain, near Mill Creek, thus the name Creekfront Stadium.

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The original post is updated with both the new version of uniforms and assets, as well as school/program background and 2022 Football uniform matchups. The former version can also bee seen there, or below.

Spoiler

Logos: v1

Football: v1

Basketball: v1

Hockey: v1

Baseball: v1