@PattyMac Ruined my day by posting that diamond Comic Sans logo. LOL. I can’t unsee it now.
The last thing we want is to look like Wyoming or Boise state. We are the Broncos for whatever reason so we have to own it, but the manifestation has to be unique.
I wish there was some way to explain to the universe that we invented the Bronco as a mascot in 1923, before Boise State opened or the Denver Broncos existed.
I’ve spent more time than I should have (but don’t I always) flipping through Ebay’s collection of old SCU football and basketball programs for sale, some of which have interior photos.
We’ve had a really weak brand identity the entire time. 1940s and 50s era stuff all has a a variety of random bucking broncos - no real consistency. The block SC is pretty present throughout, including earlier on sweaters, etc., back into the Buck Shaw era.
This weird SC with an asterisk was popular in the 60s and 70s for hoops… it stuck around for rowing for way longer. The asterisk thing is still on the oars, I think. As ever inconsistent, sometimes it’s S on C, sometimes S next to C.
Then the Comic sans Bronco. The DII football era just used the block SC on the shoulders and helmets as far as I know.
Getting an anthropomorphized horse to look good with a basketball is just not that easy.
Love the skyhook Bronco. Hilarious.
As for the unis…I am mostly agnostic. We could be Penn State and never change a stripe or Oregon that has more uniforms that my entire wardrobe. Don’t mind the grays. The blacks are ugly IMO–bland black. I also find the Shark’s all-teal to be wretch worthy.
Other things I think of about marketing:
Damn, I am old school.
I nearly choked on my panini when I saw the sky hooking horse. I dub thee “Kareem Abdul JaBronco.”
I feel fairly confident that if SCU does make the Tournament this year, a whole lot of marketing will be coming our way – some great, some silly and awful (“Game on!”). But the admin seems to have been preparing for the past 10 years to capitalize on the next great bit of momentum, so I think many of our complaints will be answered if the Broncos can break through.
Appears it was an Oakland Tribune cartoon from who knows when.
Since that’s depicting an otherwise anatomically accurate horse, the trunks would need to be much, much longer lest there be a serious wardrobe malfunction!
The diamond horse logo was back in my day in the early 90s and was the logo on my SCU lacrosse gear. That logo is decent but the Santa Clara font is terrible. Personally I love the block SC logo, legendary and iconic. I would have that be our center court logo instead of the written Santa Clara.
We have one of the largest stock valuations on the planet in the same town with Nvidia. Somewhere there has to be some high level alumni connections that can pair Nvidia with Santa Clara more and pour more money into and revolutionize Leavey Center and improve so many aspects of concessions, fan experience, pregame, etc.
Also I might be in the minority here but I am sort of tiring of the Mission silhouette on our court which I have never loved. Don’t get me wrong I love the Mission buildings but not just on the court. Plus it seems a bit outdated and I don’t see as many silhouettes on courts these days.
Arizona is still rocking a pretty garish green cactus on their court this year.
I always wondered a little if the Mission was appropriate given the religious nature of the building…
Thanks to Nashty for taking me back a few decades, especially with the cover of Mike Stewart on the 72-73 media guide. Stewie was the Graham Ike of his time, a dominating 7 foot center who was an All-American. (One of the all-time Bronco greats IMO.) The Broncos went 20-7 and lost the WCAC by a game to USF in Stewart’s senior year. We split with USF that year, winning the game at San Jose Civic Auditorium on a “hazy” Saturday afternoon.
The graphics from that era, including the SC with the asterisk, are reminiscent of a much simpler time in college basketball. Coming out of the heady time of Dennis Awtry and Bud and Ralph Ogden, we thought SCU would be a powerhouse forever. That quickly disappeared after Stewart left. We were a small school of about 3500 or so and USF was on the cusp of landing Billl Cartwright, Winford Boynes and James Hardy. We did see a resurgence when Dan Fitzgerald recruited Kurt Rambis and Londale Theus in 1976 but as you all know in the SCU story, that ebbed and flowed after they left. But boy was it fun for awhile!
The marketing of SCU athletics was pretty minimal in those years. Dick Degnon, who served as the SCU Athletic News Director (the forerunner of the Sports Information Director) from 1962-1981, was actually part-time. Degnon, one of the world’s great guys and a sports trivia junkie, had a proverbial day job at his own PR and Advertising firm in San Jose, Dick Degnon and Associates. I was Dick’s student assistant. Most of our media relations revolved around our relationship with Chet Wood, the reporter at the San Jose Mercury News who covered the Bronco beat. We relied on press releases, phone calls and the good relationships of Pat Malley, Sal Taromina (baseball coach) and Carroll Williams with Bay Area media.
As the departments, colleges and schools operated pretty much autonomously, graphics and other visuals were generally left to the imagination of who was in charge of the area. Money was limited. Many of the things that get discussed here were true then. Attendance at games rose and fell with the success of the teams. Athletic apparel (and branding for that matter) wasn’t talked about. The tournament was much smaller. Simply, if we didn’t beat USF there wasn’t a post-season. We didn’t and there wasn’t.
Oh, and just for fun, imagine what trying to recruit someone to Santa Clara was like: the team practiced in Seifert Gym (built in 1925) and we played home games at San Jose Civic Auditorium (capacity about 2500 as I recall), chandeliers and all. Nevertheless, though we were often disappointed, each season, like today, was going to be different. Some things at SCU have never changed.
Somewhat related – did anyone happen to hear anything about Julie Sullivan’s State of the University address last week? The university usually posts a video of it online, but despite digging around, I haven’t found a word about it.
Wondering if she mentioned anything about the basketball team’s current season/athletics overall/future plans/finances. I’m very curious to hear where the current administration’s thinking is these days.
Thank you for sharing your personal memorable history of our basketball program…
Here’s a good article about Miami-Ohio and how they have focused this season on investing in getting fans in seats (including maximizing space for students) and concessions. They have kept GA tickets at $18 for years and haven’t raised the price for this season despite the success.
Super interesting! Somehow an undefeated ‘streak’ that is impossible to replicate seems harder to bottle than a legitimately strong team that goes on the road and plays and beats big names, the way early GU teams did. But the former might beget the latter.
Also worth remembering - and I only remembered about halfway through the season - Miami (OH) feels a little bit like it could be a WCC type private school, but it is a public University with 16,500 undergraduates and with an FBS football team, in a college town.
They have a pretty strong hoops tradition back in the Coles/Sendek era, and their football team has a really rich tradition - Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, Ara Parseghian all coached Miami. So there’s a big latent fanbase there, though the location is a little remote.
One wonders what Travis Steele will do. His alma mater, Butler, certainly needs a shot in the arm - Thad Matta hasn’t quite figured it out - but one suspects he still might.
No doubt Miami made some fans for life this year.
No doubt we’re converting a few on the SCU side this year at this very moment. A few hundred new instagram and twitter followers for the men’s hoops team since Sash’s shot. Staying in this conversation, and being in the dance, really matter.
Not sure when spring break is for the students but one way to build some buzz would be a watch party on Sunday for the selection show
Winter finals are next week, spring break is the following week…
I hope students were smart and front loaded their finals Mon-wed and adjust their spring break plans to go to March Madness
They are doing that. Also this week is week 10, followed by finals next week which as far as I’m aware run Monday-Thursday. Biggest challenge to getting people to potential MM games other than finals is that a lot of people have already booked spring break trips, which personally I would cancel but not everyone wants to sacrifice Cabo for Dayton, etc/ you can of course lose a significant amount of money on that kind of stuff if you back out.
Edit: To follow on Midwest above, your finals schedule is determined on when your classes are so people don’t have control, it’s more down to the professors if they’re willing to be flexible and let you take it early if it’s on Thursday for example. In my experience, a lot of the best class times have Thursday finals and some classes only have one section offered so you don’t have an option.
Gaels have announced theirs…
Last I checked, SCU’s headline on our athletics website was about how one of our beach volleyball coaches made a 30 under 30 list.
Classic SCU.
We may well be waiting to see what shakes out… but the post-game recap article doesn’t even mention the post-season (and we’re certainly NIT bound even in a nightmare scenario).
EDIT: Excuse me, they are assistant volleyball coaches.
Don’t even mention that ugly 3-letter acronym.
