Trojans logos: It's all about location

Former baseball player Ron Shuffield (left), a member of the UALR Hall of Fame, and Malcolm Means, chairman of Create Little Rock, unveil new UALR logos Wednesday.
Former baseball player Ron Shuffield (left), a member of the UALR Hall of Fame, and Malcolm Means, chairman of Create Little Rock, unveil new UALR logos Wednesday.

Chris Curry didn't have any grand plans when he ordered UALR's baseball uniforms last fall.

Curry was going into his first year as the Trojans' coach and wanted something simple, something different and something that could possibly help his team connect with the community. So he settled on a design that featured a script "Little Rock" logo across the front of the jerseys.

"We did what a lot of people were thinking," Curry said. "Let's represent our hometown on our chests."

It will be a department-wide look now.

UALR Athletic Director Chasse Conque unveiled two new athletic logos during a news conference Wednesday at Bailey Alumni Center and announced that the department will refer to itself as simply "Little Rock" on all uniforms, official letterhead and news releases.

Conque said he hopes the re-branding effort accentuates UALR's location in the state's largest metropolitan area.

"We want to build our identity as Little Rock's team, and make sure that everybody knows that we are proudly located right here in the heart of our capital city," Conque said.

That point is driven home by the new logos, which were unveiled when volleyball Coach Van Compton, former baseball player and UALR Hall of Famer Ron Sheffield and former basketball coach Bill Ballard pulled down two black curtains to reveal the designs.

The signature logo consists of the Trojan head logo that has been in use since 2004 with the printed words "Little Rock" next to it in front of a maroon back drop with a silver border.

The secondary logo, which Conque said eventually will be on all UALR athletic uniforms, consists of an italicized maroon "Little Rock" over a silver underline. In recent years, UALR's men's and women's basketball teams and baseball team regularly had different word markings on their jerseys.

The re-branding is similar to moves made by other Division I schools located in metropolitan areas like North Carolina-Charlotte, which refers to its teams as Charlotte; Nebraska-Omaha, which refers to its teams as Omaha; and Wisconsin-Green Bay, which goes by Green Bay.

Conque said his staff talked with some of those schools to learn the benefits.

"It's not something new," Conque said. "Those institutions were smart. They embraced their metropolitan area. That's what we want to accomplish."

Wednesday's announcement was the culmination of a few months of planning by Conque, his staff and the university's communications staff. Conque said it was an idea he brought with him when he was hired in January, but an inadvertent trial run took place this spring with Curry's baseball jerseys.

Curry was hired last July and uniforms were ordered in the transition period between former athletic director Chris Peterson and Conque's hire in January. Curry unveiled the jersey designs first on social media and said he received positive reviews throughout the season.

"I haven't had one conversation with a person who didn't like it," Curry said.

It also could help on the recruiting trail, he said. Curry said he's had to explain where UALR is located too many times during his first season, and Compton said she's had that same conversation countless times since arriving on campus in 1985.

"They walk up to you and say, 'What is UALR?' " she said. "I think it happens nine times out of 10. It's too much. It's too busy. It's just not a good identification for us."

Conque hopes it helps identify the school with the city in which it is located while also connecting the program to a local fan base.

"This is our capital city," he said. "This is something that regardless of where you live in the state, you can own Little Rock as your city. So, I want this to be something as an inclusive move."

Conque said the logos were created by the university's office of communications. Costs for updating uniforms and signage won't be known until completed, he said.

"It's not something that we're going to bite off all at once," Conque said. "It will probably take a good two years to implement through every uniform, every business card, every letterhead.

"There are things we're going to attack first, but we're really fortunate when we looked at different sports and the uniform cycle, most of them needed new uniforms this year regardless."

Sports on 07/02/2015

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