BELOIT, Wis. - The new Buccaneer will stand out among other conference logos and connect with current and future students, alumni, and the larger community. The initial response to the redesign has been positive.
"From an artistic perspective, the logo has a really clean and contemporary look," says Mason Sorensen '25, a recent grad from Wausau who double-majored in art and psychology. "It's got the fierce and resilient vibe of Beloit students."
Throughout its history, Beloit College has been represented by a variety of mascots and nicknames, with the Buccaneer arriving on the scene in 1949. The last update of the Buc occurred in the late 1970s, when football coach and athletic director Ed DeGeorge selected a Buccaneer logo from a catalog — a winking pirate wearing a plumed hat with a dagger in his teeth. After serving the college for more than 45 years, that rakish, swashbuckling Buccaneer has sailed off into the sunset.
The new Buccaneer design, which evokes the Beloiter traits of courage and adventurousness, was selected with input from college stakeholders throughout the spring semester. The feedback was reviewed by a committee who worked with Hoodzpah, a California design firm that created the new Buccaneer image. After several rounds of revision, the final version was decided upon, and this week unveiled.
"Beloit has traditionally been and remains at the forefront among small liberal arts colleges, and has a proud athletic history" says Eric Boynton, college president. "This new logo represents the intensity and competitive spirit of our athletes and our entire athletic program."
"The Buccaneer is about confidence and competitiveness, and underneath it all, we are all the same," said Karen H. Schedin, Vice President for Enrollment Management, Marketing & Athletics, who led the initiative to reimagine the mascot for the present and the future. "And it was also important that the new design reflect the college's culture and its connection with the community."
Naturally some alumni will be sad to say good-bye to the swashbuckling Buccaneer winking at them from well-worn sweatshirts and pennants from their dorm days. College students, coming together at a crucial time in their lives, can form a powerful emotional relationship with their school's colors and mascots – as well as with each other. These feelings continue when alumni don an old college sweatshirt and return for reunions, football games, and other college events. For these alumni, the vintage Buccaneer may always be their Buccaneer, while the next generation embraces a Buccaneer without gender or race (or even skin!).
Our vintage Buccaneer has begun his well-earned retirement and the on-boarding of the new Buc will continue in the months and semesters ahead as the Beloit College community welcomes the new mascot to campus. The college is in the process of developing new brand guidelines to reflect the redesign, to support the campus and alumni community in getting the new Buccaneer onto uniforms, merchandise, the website, and more.
Fun Facts
