BATESVILLE — With the unveiling of a new logo that features the rampant lion from the school’s seal, the Lyon College Scots have been given a new identity.
The Lyon athletic department unveiled the logo at a news conference Monday.
“I’ve been here for 28 years, and I’ve seen a lot of things [change] with our athletic logo, but this time we went through a lot of different ideas and things,” said Kevin Jenkins, director of athletics at Lyon College.
The college is adding football and men’s and women’s wrestling to its athletic program in 2014, and officials said they thought it was time for the school to have a new logo to identify with. Josh Tate, director of marketing and communications for Lyon College, designed the new logo.
“This was the perfect time for us to make our brand a little stronger in our athletic programs and give us an identity out there that we felt we could really market to not only our new student athletes, but to our constituents and our donors,” Jenkins said.
The logo will represent the Scots on their jerseys and various athletic memorabilia.
“The rampant lion comes from our seal, and it’s a symbol of bravery and strength. It embodies our Scottish heritage that we have here at the college,” Jenkins said. “We felt that [the lion] was a good point for us to utilize in our athletic logo.”
Donald Weatherman, Lyon College president, said college officials have been conducting planning and assessment studies for the past two years and looking for strategies to help the college grow, as well as adding new athletic programs — a proven method of attracting more students.
“We’ve hovered around different numbers since I’ve been here,” Weatherman said. “Part of what we did in the strategic planning and assessment, we looked at what size of school we need to be for a variety of reasons.”
Talk of a football program has been in the works for many years up to the present, Weatherman said. He was a member of the faculty from 1983 to 1999, and there were only two football programs in the area the year he left.
“When I came back [in 2009], there were 10 high school football programs in this area,” he said. “One of the things I think is unique about Lyon is that we’re a national liberal arts college, with a real commitment to the area we’re a part of 70 to 75 percent of our students always come from Arkansas, and we don’t want to change that.”
Weatherman said the new logo will be a method of attracting student athletes to Lyon.
“We’ve gone through a bunch of different athletic logos, and quite frankly, nothing has worked very well for us,” he said. “I think this is a nice touch. It will be something that’s unique to us and will stand out and give us an identity that we lack.”
At the news conference, Weatherman was presented with the first official Lyon polo shirt with the new logo.
“All of this is part of a process of clarifying who we are, giving us a clear identity,” Weatherman said. “[This way], our task is much easier when we go places. People know that we are Lyon College.”
Staff writer Lisa Burnett can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or lburnett@arkansasonline.com.