HS Football in Wisconsin

[ManCalledAmp]

I think it's more to see if certain area high schools mold themselves after a major school in the area. Apparently a lot of Wisconsin high schools use Wisconsin looks, and Mid-Michigan schools use the Michigan/Delaware helmet style. However, other areas, like in my Tennessee example, don't have an abundance of the look of the area's "main school" in color and/or basic design.

And to counter the cookie-cutter-to-save-money argument, I think I may have a solution. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, as I've never had to order uniforms before. However, I doubt it would cost any more than it does to just say "make me look like ________" than it does to pick a different template and, in a sense, paint by numbers. Take, for example, the Fighting Irish example above. (Or a few pages back.) Notre Dame colors and logo...but Ohio State design and template. Very simple, likely very cheap...but unique and identifiable. And without looking like a clone of anyone. Instead of the "ultimate ripoff/Champs Sports Bowl" package, I don't think it would cost any/much more to tell the uni supplier to use the motion W, red-and-white-with-black-accents color scheme, and....the Texas Tech templates reversed, or Maryland, or South Carolina...or even something much more out there: New York Jets in red? Tennessee Titans with white or black shoulders? The Ubiquitous Broncos look? UCLA stripes? I could go on and on...and honestly, this could make for some interesting concepts--retemplating high schools. Hmm.

But I digress. Is it any cheaper to point to a school or an off-the-rack design and say "make us look just like that" or is it about the same price as using your colors on an existing uni manufacturer's out-of-the-book template?

[FWIW, I know this gives us more templating and more whacked out looks, but is it really any worse than having 200 low-budget Wisconsin clones, 50 Ohio States, and a dozen Michigans...reppin' the high schools?]

[Epiphanic]

That's not the point.

Aside from the fact without some sort of blessing from the trademark holder (the University of Wisconsin, for example), it's been mentioned numerous times that schools have art programs. Why not make a class out of logo design? A professional company isn't needed for a professional logo. Schools need to look outside the box or just stick with public domain stuff.

[The_Admiral]

As for having so many Wisconsin high schools with variants of the Motion W or the red and black colors, it makes sense. part of it is using traditional Republican red.

1A) Red has only been associated with the Republican Party since NBC told us so in 2000

1B) Red is in fact the traditional color of socialism and labor

2) Wisconsin is a pretty historically Democratic/Progressive/Socialist/Independent/Not Republican state

in total, F the heck are you talking about

[PackerBadger]

As for having so many Wisconsin high schools with variants of the Motion W or the red and black colors, it makes sense. part of it is using traditional Republican red.

1A) Red has only been associated with the Republican Party since NBC told us so in 2000

1B) Red is in fact the traditional color of socialism and labor

2) Wisconsin is a pretty historically Democratic/Progressive/Socialist/Independent/Not Republican state

So much so, in fact, that every Wisconsin Badgers running play is to the left side.

[quantum]

As for having so many Wisconsin high schools with variants of the Motion W or the red and black colors, it makes sense. part of it is using traditional Republican red.

1A) Red has only been associated with the Republican Party since NBC told us so in 2000

1B) Red is in fact the traditional color of socialism and labor

2) Wisconsin is a pretty historically Democratic/Progressive/Socialist/Independent/Not Republican state

in total, F the heck are you talking about

In the US, red has been associated with conservatives well before the 2000 election, at least in Wisconsin. Additionally, Wisconsin is far from leftist. It's true that Milwaukee has a socialist past. But if you take Milwaukee and Madison out of the equation, you would be hard pressed to get a Democrat into office most elections. In most cases, republicans go unopposed. Federal elections has swung democratic, but only because of Milwaukee and Madison. The bulk of the state is Republican. Oh, and there is that little known fact the Ripon is the birthplace of the Republican Party.

And if that doesn't convince you -- MCCARTHYISM!

[apeman33]

Just to be kinda on topic...

Surprisingly, I know of only one high school in Kansas that calls its teams that Jayhawks. It's Jayhawk-Linn High School (of course). But the school colors are red and gold.

This is the school's logo.

Yes, it's the KU Jayhawk with a cowboy hat.

Also, while there are several "Wildcats" in the state, I don't know of any that use the K-State powercat, not even the one school I know of that's both Wildcats and purple & white. You're more likely to find the powercat in Texas.

Missouri, however, is littered with Tigers...at least in the southeast part of the state where I know of at least four of them within 100 miles of each other along the same highway.

[oddball]

The funny thing is here in Orange County (SoCal), that to my knowledge the only teams that I know of that use uniforms (looks) that would look like UCLA or USC are Santa Ana Valley (UCLA) with the Bob Toldeo numbers and the current Atlanta Falcons logo and Esperanza which has always had the USC look. Past that, I don't know of any other teams.

[illwauk]

As for having so many Wisconsin high schools with variants of the Motion W or the red and black colors, it makes sense. part of it is using traditional Republican red.

1A) Red has only been associated with the Republican Party since NBC told us so in 2000

1B) Red is in fact the traditional color of socialism and labor

2) Wisconsin is a pretty historically Democratic/Progressive/Socialist/Independent/Not Republican state

in total, F the heck are you talking about

In the US, red has been associated with conservatives well before the 2000 election, at least in Wisconsin. Additionally, Wisconsin is far from leftist. It's true that Milwaukee has a socialist past. But if you take Milwaukee and Madison out of the equation, you would be hard pressed to get a Democrat into office most elections. In most cases, republicans go unopposed. Federal elections has swung democratic, but only because of Milwaukee and Madison. The bulk of the state is Republican. Oh, and there is that little known fact the Ripon is the birthplace of the Republican Party.

And if that doesn't convince you -- MCCARTHYISM!

::bookmarks this post for the next time Mockba accuses me of exaggerating the Milwaukee/Madison vs. "real, small town" Wisconsin divide::

1. What state ISN'T overwhelmingly republican without its two biggest cities?

1b. Howcome no one tries to say Phily and Pittsburgh aren't "real" Pennsylvania or LA and the Bay aren't "real" California, yet it's perfectly acceptable (and apparently, encouraged) to act as if Milwaukee and Madison are on Mars compared to the rest of Wisconsin?

2. The Republican party that was founded in Wisconsin had much more in common with todays Democrats than the modern Republicans. Their primary agenda back then was to stop the spread of slavery.

3. Since we've (you've) established that Milwaukee doesn't have enough farmhouses, cows and cheese factories to be considered Wisconsin, I guess it's a null point to bring up that it had the only socialist mayor in the U.S. (Frank Ziedler) during McCarthy's time.

[illwauk]

Now was the point of this thread to complain about the look of high school teams and the usage of logos and uniforms that are pro and college looks or what?

Not necessarily. My complaint is that so many of the schools in Wisconsin that use red & white can't seem to separate themselves from the Badgers influence AT ALL... although some are more obvious than others.

It's like the other person said, even on a shoestring budget, there's way too many default templates for this to be as big a problem as it is.

[Discrim]

the irony about the whole thing is Lake Geneva Badger, the one team you'd think would emulate the Badgers to the letter, looks nothing like UW.

(heh, the pic's pretty big, so I'm just posting the link)

http://varsity-football-team.lakegeneva.ba...584-45949-3.JPG

[PackerBadger]

the irony about the whole thing is Lake Geneva Badger, the one team you'd think would emulate the Badgers to the letter, looks nothing like UW.

Uh, yeah. Truth be told, Badger looks better than the Badgers (CARDINAL instead of red, side numbers in the right place), except for the Michelin Man look as depicted by #77 and #72.

(My high school in the People's Republic of Madison -- think the Raiders except for dark red instead of black -- played the Lake Geneva Badger Badgers in state basketball. And won.)

Ultimately, I don't think it's lack of funds; it's lack of imagination. Not many high school football coaches or ADs know much about design, except possibly designing an offense and defense. (And I've seen enough games to wonder about that.)

[quantum]

As for having so many Wisconsin high schools with variants of the Motion W or the red and black colors, it makes sense. part of it is using traditional Republican red.

1A) Red has only been associated with the Republican Party since NBC told us so in 2000

1B) Red is in fact the traditional color of socialism and labor

2) Wisconsin is a pretty historically Democratic/Progressive/Socialist/Independent/Not Republican state

in total, F the heck are you talking about

In the US, red has been associated with conservatives well before the 2000 election, at least in Wisconsin. Additionally, Wisconsin is far from leftist. It's true that Milwaukee has a socialist past. But if you take Milwaukee and Madison out of the equation, you would be hard pressed to get a Democrat into office most elections. In most cases, republicans go unopposed. Federal elections has swung democratic, but only because of Milwaukee and Madison. The bulk of the state is Republican. Oh, and there is that little known fact the Ripon is the birthplace of the Republican Party.

And if that doesn't convince you -- MCCARTHYISM!

::bookmarks this post for the next time Mockba accuses me of exaggerating the Milwaukee/Madison vs. "real, small town" Wisconsin divide::

1. What state ISN'T overwhelmingly republican without its two biggest cities?

1b. Howcome no one tries to say Phily and Pittsburgh aren't "real" Pennsylvania or LA and the Bay aren't "real" California, yet it's perfectly acceptable (and apparently, encouraged) to act as if Milwaukee and Madison are on Mars compared to the rest of Wisconsin?

2. The Republican party that was founded in Wisconsin had much more in common with todays Democrats than the modern Republicans. Their primary agenda back then was to stop the spread of slavery.

3. Since we've (you've) established that Milwaukee doesn't have enough farmhouses, cows and cheese factories to be considered Wisconsin, I guess it's a null point to bring up that it had the only socialist mayor in the U.S. (Frank Ziedler) during McCarthy's time.

Jesus Christ guys. I make a point about rural communities making a connection with their more conservative views re: sports and you get bent out of shape about this . A local football team is representative of its local ties and views. Just because the state as a whole might vote for democrats doesn't mean those beliefs are equally applied throughout every voting district.

And yes, eliminating the two top cities would make most states republican. But take the GB-Appleton metro area, which constitutes approx. 450K-500K people -- not insignificant. And yet (back to what I posted earlier), republicans dominate the elections. I also acknowledged Milwaukee's socialist past -- key word is MILWAUKEE. Not saying it is a good thing or a bad thing, it's just a fact.

Your last point makes it sound like I have some issue with Milwaukee and Madison. I don't. However, as the rural areas don't define the state as a whole, Milwaukee and Madison are far from the end-all, be-all of the state either.

[mohelmets]

Missouri, however, is littered with Tigers...at least in the southeast part of the state where I know of at least four of them within 100 miles of each other along the same highway.

36 to be exact, or about 11% of the schools that play varsity football...

Tigers aren't the only mascot that litter Missouri...Bluejays (and Blue Jays), Cardinals, Bulldogs and Pirates, are everywhere as well...

BUT, Missouri also has the Spoofhounds and Zizzers....How many states have those?

[DrBear]

OK, I try to avoid political arguments, and my high school has a nice, unique helmet logo - an italic H with a polar bear head next to it (Hortonville Polar Bears). (Although one team I cover, the Seymour Thunder - formerly Indians - uses a Chargers-style lightning bolt, in red with black trim).

But...

Green Bay-Appleton has apparently gone to the Democrats - the last few elections, that is. The congressman from the area who was re-elected is a Democrat; one state rep and the state senator are Democrats.

By the way, back in 1976, NBC used blue for Republicans, red for Democrats on its election map (the first time one was built for the studio before the modern graphics took over). I remember because I read that Michigan man Gerald Ford, when he won a state, would yell "Go Blue!"

Come to think of it - Red worked that year for Carter as well, being from the home of the Dawgs.

So this year, we should have had orange for Obama and either navy blue or maroon for McCain, I guess.

[quantum]

...

Green Bay-Appleton has apparently gone to the Democrats - the last few elections, that is. The congressman from the area who was re-elected is a Democrat; one state rep and the state senator are Democrats.

...

This year is a bit of an anomaly, but the area is shifting its demographics a bit . That said, Neenah was par for the course, with one local race having a democrat running. And we've been stuck with the same republican congressman for 15 terms. I'm surprised Kagen won a second term since it was the first time since the 70s that has happened, but the conditions were right for it.

[The_Admiral]

Federal elections has swung democratic, but only because of Milwaukee and Madison.

Take away the Badgers' losses and they're undefeated.

As for the color thing, they used to switch off, as I recall; it was only in 2000 that we decided (or had someone decide for us) that the semiotic meaning of the color red had shifted from socialism and labor to evangelicalism and warmongering. Sorta spoils a lot of All in the Family episodes: so you mean Meathead sympathizes with the NRA? Huh?

[illwauk]

Considering that UW's colors have been red and white since the 19th century, I seriously doubt politics had anything to do with it either way.

And FWIW, Green Bay and Appleton are hardly the same metro area. Same media market... but there's a good 30-45 mins worth of nothing inbetween them. Not that there's much difference between them politically...

[hecticbro]

Hah this is funny. My old highschool here in Oregon now uses the Wisconsin "W" because its called Willamette.

Have they been sued yet?

Those Sconnies are rather protective of their W.

[The Imperfect]

Novi HS in Michigan is an exact rip-off of Kansas State, whose logo and uniforms I love. They are green and white instead of purple and white...

Kansas State Uniforms

Novi Uniforms

Their rivals have nice uniforms too.

Northville Uniforms

Although I don't like the helmet stripe.

[illwauk]

Hah this is funny. My old highschool here in Oregon now uses the Wisconsin "W" because its called Willamette.

Have they been sued yet?

Those Sconnies are rather protective of their W.

Interestingly enough, they haven't cracked down on any of the schools in Wisconsin that use it (mine included).

My guess is they're worried about bad press in their home state. Or they don't want to be embarrassed if a court should find that a logo commissioned by a state school that is funded by public money is accessible to every public school in that state.

But I did hear a story about a girl getting scolded by one of the UW admins for not getting their permission for her motion W tattoo. So comforting knowing that the largest institution that my tax dollars are funding (apparently) has such admirable priorities.