Ruffling Feathers at U.
If you haven’t noticed lately, you will soon: The traditional drum-and-feather Ute logo is being phased out.
When the university replaced the old AstroTurf field at Rice-Eccles, it replaced the drum-and-feather with a simple block U. That’s also the the case outside the football offices and even on the outside of Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Although the U. has permission from the Ute tribe to keep the nickname and use the logo, the school has gradually been de-emphasizing the drum-and-feather, though it remains on the helmets. My guess is that it will die eventually, once the Utes are in the Pac-12. There is no conference more sensitive to potentially offensive logos than the Pac-10.
If you look at the lineup of logos for the current Pac-10 universities on the conference’s website, all but two — Oregon State and Washington State — avoid images of mascots entirely. They just use a letter or combination of letters to identify their schools.
Look for the block U — not the drum and feather — to be Utah’s calling card in the new conference. As for a mascot, I suspect they’ll eventually become the red-tailed hawks, rather than Utes.
Is that a good thing? Let me know what you think.
