Odd logo placement.

[rams80]

I wonder what it would be like today if Chicago had remained in the Big 10...

Penn State would probably be in the Big East then.

I wonder what conference Michigan State would be in these days.

Most likely the MAC, Big East, or Conference USA. Assuming they are in a Conference. And assuming something approaching today's conference structure existed (hooray 50-60 years worth of butterflies!)

For what its worth, IIRC the actual site is in a relatively built up part of the University now, but is marked by a sculpture.

[Gothamite]

From that picture, it could be anything. It doesn't really resemble a logo to me though.

Im almost certain its their logo. They were (i beleive) the first to use the wishbone C (Reds, Bears) and thats what appears to be on top of the helmet...

Not that I dispute it, but I'd like to see some documentary evidence of that though. A lot of helmet manufacturers of the day would use different colored leathers in their process, including white (my grandfather played in the 1920's, and I have his helmet which was navy and orange-painted leather). It could be that's the case here, rather than a logo.

Could be, but I don't know. A white leather stripe that goes almost but not quite all the way around the top of a helmet? I'm not familiar with that construction on any leather helmet.

Seems Occam's Razor would lean towards "helmet logo" in choosing between those two.

[TruColor]

I wonder what it would be like today if Chicago had remained in the Big 10...

Penn State would probably be in the Big East then.

I wonder what conference Michigan State would be in these days.

Most likely the MAC, Big East, or Conference USA. Assuming they are in a Conference. And assuming something approaching today's conference structure existed (hooray 50-60 years worth of butterflies!)

I don't quite understand how this works, but the U. of Chicago is actually still part of the Big Ten - as far as some academics go. Chicago pulled their athletic teams out back in the day, but remained in some of the academic affiliations. And -- the U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is also a part of that affiliation. For some reason.

I'll have to ask my dad about it again...he is a now-retired Purdue professor, but still has a permanent office on campus, and had many dealings with the U. of Chicago in this manner in the past.

[Gothamite]

I knew that about Chicago, but didn't know that about UW-Milwaukee.

We forget that the conferences mean more to the schools than just football and basketball....

[Waleslax]

I don't quite understand how this works, but the U. of Chicago is actually still part of the Big Ten - as far as some academics go. Chicago pulled their athletic teams out back in the day, but remained in some of the academic affiliations. And -- the U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is also a part of that affiliation. For some reason.

I'll have to ask my dad about it again...he is a now-retired Purdue professor, but still has a permanent office on campus, and had many dealings with the U. of Chicago in this manner in the past.

I am at the University of Chicago now. The teams are D3 and compete in the UAA which the U of Chicago co-founded (as they also did with the Big Ten). http://www.uaa.rochester.edu/ The league and the school focus more on academics with athletics sort of as a throw in. Part of the reason the school left the Big Ten was to focus on academics. The President at the time felt that far too much money and attention were being spent on sports. The school does, as stated earlier, still maintain an academic relationship with the Big Ten schools through the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.

I should also note that club teams play in a variety of leagues. For example, the lacrosse team plays in the Great Lakes Lacrosse Association which, a number of other Big 10 teams participate in (Northwestern, Wisconsin).

As per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_bears :

From 1940?1947, quarterback Sid Luckman led the Bears to victories in four out of the five NFL Championship Games in which they appeared. The team acquired the University of Chicago's discarded nickname "Monsters of the Midway" and their now-famous helmet "C", as well as a newly-penned theme song that declared them "The Pride and Joy of Illinois".

I know the school used the C before the Bears. As per the sports Hall of Fame found in the Rattner Center, the Bears got the C from the school and the Cardinals got... well, their jerseys (and in turn their color and their name since the well worn jerseys led then owner to exclain "that's not Maroon, it's cardinal red." See below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Cardi....281898-1959.29

O'Brien later moved them to Chicago's Normal Park and renamed them the Racine Normals, since Normal Park was located on Racine Avenue in Chicago. In 1901, O'Brien bought used maroon uniforms from the University of Chicago, the colors of which had by then faded, leading O'Brien to exclaim, "That's not maroon, it's cardinal red!" It was then that the team changed its name to the Racine Cardinals.

The Reds also seem to have begun using the logo after the school did. The earliest I can find the Reds using the wishbone C is 1915.

Also of interest is that the Cubs had also used the wishbone C logo in

In the end, the decision to focus on academics over football seems to have turned out well. The U of C has turned out to be quite the academic powerhouse, being affiliated with 81 Nobel Laureates

( http://www.uchicago.edu/about/accolades/nobel/ )and consistently being ranked as a top undergraduate and graduate school worldwide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of..._and_reputation

Please let me know if there are any specific questions I can answer.

There is a lot of info that I can't find online that is available at the school itself.

Other links of note:

http://athletics.uchicago.edu/quickfacts.pdf

http://athletics.uchicago.edu/history.htm

http://athletics.uchicago.edu/history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_chicago#Athletics

Interresting note - the schools original color was "goldenrod" which Alonzo Stagg was responsible for changing. As he noted, "yellow" was not an appropriate color for a football team due to the potential of being easily mocked.

Glad I could help!

Rob

PS - Thank you for the picture. I made it the background on my laptop!

[RichO]

I had been pretty confident U of C used the horseshoe C before other prominent users but could only say so confidently about the Bears. Interesting that they might even have been ahead of the Reds- not that it matters.

Side note on the Cubs- their red and blue circle-C logo is lifted direction from the Chicago Athletic Association- a private club of particular importance at one time.

[MarkAtnip]

Here is one from the the early 40's. I believe this is the U of St. Louis. Looks a lot like the MLB logo (although it's too grainy to see the "T") Again, an early logo with an odd helmet placement.

[Gothamite]

Interesting. So they just copied the logo placement from a baseball cap?

There might not be a "t" in that logo. St Louis teams didn't always use one:

1918-1919 Cardinals

1924-1928 Browns

[bulldogbarks55]

Here is one from the the early 40's. I believe this is the U of St. Louis. Looks a lot like the MLB logo (although it's too grainy to see the "T") Again, an early logo with an odd helmet placement.

Could also be St. Lawrence University in Northern New York State who has a long football tradition.