Lost Letterman is a fan of the whirly bird...

Clone1138

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Apr 18, 2013
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this is the best logo ever. too bad we sucked so bad during its tenure. perhaps we would still have the dopest logo in the big 12

I'll probably catch hell for this, but I hate that logo. I've never been a fan of it.

The current I-State logo is probably my favorite with the old school Walking Cy as the best secondary mark.
 

Linusvanp3lt

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Sep 25, 2012
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BYU's barely changed and I think they are actually better now.



:nah:

If you think a hawk and a cardinal are the same thing I can't take what you are trying to say seriously Lost Letterman...not to mention mixing up the birds of two instate rivals...

The problem with ISU's jerseys were A) the blue (SOOO glad the blue is gone) and B) our logo wasn't branding or recognizable enough. College sports/ESPN watchers recognize "I-State" better now but the twirly bird could've been a couple different schools to a casual fan.

FSU and Miami's old ones were definitely better.

Uhh...Kool-aid drinking I see. B is what the AD said when we made the change.

I-State is more recognizable to the casual fan than a red cardinal with a tornado attached to his bottom? Considering we are the only Cyclones, and the only one who has a Cardinal as a mascot, I'm going to go ahead and say that's more unique than an I (could be Illinois, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana) State which was essentially a rip off of Arkansas States AState.
 

Linusvanp3lt

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I wish we used a secondary logo/mascot based mark. Almost every school has a letter/wordmark based logo, and a mascot based one. I actually liked the redone punching whirly bird with the replaced darker red for blue.

That being said, we should just use walking cy as our secondary logo and be done.
 

MeanDean

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Uhh...Kool-aid drinking I see. B is what the AD said when we made the change.

I-State is more recognizable to the casual fan than a red cardinal with a tornado attached to his bottom? Considering we are the only Cyclones, and the only one who has a Cardinal as a mascot, I'm going to go ahead and say that's more unique than an I (could be Illinois, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana) State which was essentially a rip off of Arkansas States AState.

I'm pretty sure Louisville will disagree with this. And speaking of Illinois State, aren't they the Red Birds? Ever heard of the Stanford Cardinal? - not the bird, strictly speaking, but still confusing to a casual fan. So, no, the cardinal is NOT unique.

They're lots of "X-State" logos, but Iowa State,while incorporating the A in State to line up with the I defines it as Iowa - since IA is the official abbreviation for Iowa.

And of all the other I-State schools you mention, Iowa State is the only one in the big leagues, so we should be able to claim the moniker - unlike OSU (Oklahoma, Ohio, and Oregon) who have to fight it out in the major conferences.

Lastly, Iowa is pronounced with the long I. So I-State works well with that. Illinois and Indiana both are pronounced with the short I sound, so it doesn't fit the I-State logo as well phonetically. Yeah, you have a point on Idaho State, but really, when is the last time anyone considered Idaho State significant in any collegiate sports?
 
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wonkadog

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Apr 17, 2006
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When the guy calls an ISU logo a combination of a HAWK and anything else he's truly destined to be WRONG.

The end.

If he were going for the Criner 1980's Tornado/Iowa State logo I'd at least be able to understand it.

3hsbh0hs6q89raim5ym969lgq.gif

My dream of all dreams is for us to go back to this logo on the helmets, and in an even more perfect world, drop the Iowa State above it and just use the tornado logo. It would look great.
 

19clone91

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Gotta Love the plethora of Logos we have over the past 40 years.

I have to say I don't like the I-State logo. I prefer the Iowa State 70's tornado and the Angry Walking Cy the best.
 

RubyClone

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Mar 21, 2014
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When the guy calls an ISU logo a combination of a HAWK and anything else he's truly destined to be WRONG.

The end.

If he were going for the Criner 1980's Tornado/Iowa State logo I'd at least be able to understand it.

3hsbh0hs6q89raim5ym969lgq.gif


As a student during that tenure - it creates a visceral and near violent negative reaction. And it was never really used outside of FB that I recall.

For my money, this is still the best ISU has to offer - and the variations for the major sports

1978VCCyWalking.jpg
1974VCFootballCy.jpg
1974VCBasketballCy.jpg
1970VCWrestlingCy.jpg


Problem is that it doesn't "brand" all that well. The current I-State really is pretty sweet for that IMO.

Nothing is as bad as blender-bird. And for me, it really went off the rails when they started with that damn blue "accent" color. You can see it in TD's jersey in that piece. And i remember in the '01, '02 season in particular when the FB players would wear colder weather gear that was a dark blue. WTF?


e872a9450475cf4672909339575a2142bad1561e.jpg


But that's also probably a factor of what was the logo when you attached yourself to ISU.
 
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wonkadog

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Beg to differ. As a student during that tenure - it creates a visceral and near violent negative reaction. And it was never really used outside of FB that I recall.

I can understand that a generation+ of Cyclones associate that logo with absolute crap football, but I think we're far enough removed now that it could be brought back. There's a whole new group of fans that love it and have no recollection of the "years that shall not be mentioned."

BTW, I was a student during the "taz Cy" logo days and I still think it's the worst one we've ever had.
 

Erik4Cy

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People knew the whirlybird logo just as much as the I State logo.

As far as people in Ames or Iowa are concerned you are probably right, but not nationally. They whirlybird was very unrecognizable to people outside the state. Something that did help the Whirlybird out was the fact that ISU used it for so long through the McCarney years. It was the helmet logo for at least twice as long as pretty much every other one. Duration is about the only thing that helped it's poor branding. Give the I-State logo that much time and everyone will know who it is, if they don't already. I am also someone whose freshman year at ISU was 2004. We still had the whirlybird and I fell in love with Cyclone sports after growing up a hawkeye from watching Seneca Wallace and Troy Davis run in those helmets and jerseys.

I wasn't against them, it is just that they aren't branding. I guess I just agree with Jamie Pollard that it wasn't branding enough. I think we've done a much better job of getting the "I-State" out there, but I actually like the old walking Cy as the best logo, it unfortunately carries the same problem as the whirlybird.

As a student during that tenure - it creates a visceral and near violent negative reaction. And it was never really used outside of FB that I recall.

For my money, this is still the best ISU has to offer - and the variations for the major sports

1978VCCyWalking.jpg
1974VCFootballCy.jpg
1974VCBasketballCy.jpg
1970VCWrestlingCy.jpg


Problem is that it doesn't "brand" all that well. The current I-State really is pretty sweet for that IMO.

Nothing is as bad as blender-bird. And for me, it really went off the rails when they started with that damn blue "accent" color. You can see it in TD's jersey in that piece. And i remember in the '01, '02 season in particular when the FB players would wear colder weather gear that was a dark blue. WTF?


e872a9450475cf4672909339575a2142bad1561e.jpg


But that's also probably a factor of what was the logo when you attached yourself to ISU.

Thank you. those Cys were the BEST logo and you are spot on with the only problem with them compared to the "I-State" logo. I just do not understand the love of the whirlybird logo. And that blue was awful.

I mostly agree about the attachment to ISU factor but I did get attached during all the whirlybird years and I realize the people back in the day had a much better logo than our 90's-2000s did. I'm not even saying today's "I-State" logo is a better designed logo or anything, just that from a marketing and branding standpoint it is better nationally.

UKNRGHBJIPIMKQM.20070406162745.gif
AOOPFOOEWNLVELG.20070406163216.gif
ESHLBBESWPYJWNE.20070406163608.gif


All of those were better than this:

BLMEAYPNUTCACME.20070406163839.gif

These ones I've always been kind of one the fence about/can't decide if I really like them or not:

OKBXXQTEPHNIWDO.20070406163324.gif
TUNEMSBGENJKAGN.20070406163506.gif
 

KnappShack

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When the guy calls an ISU logo a combination of a HAWK and anything else he's truly destined to be WRONG.

The end.

If he were going for the Criner 1980's Tornado/Iowa State logo I'd at least be able to understand it.

3hsbh0hs6q89raim5ym969lgq.gif

I found my ISU hockey jersey with that logo on there. The early-mid ISU Hockey gear was pretty sweet
 

surly

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May 16, 2013
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i agree on the double stripes being unnecessary, actually too much. but your helmets are sweet. the "I" logo is the best i've ever seen at ames. the bird in a blender was not.
 
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jkclone

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As far as people in Ames or Iowa are concerned you are probably right, but not nationally. They whirlybird was very unrecognizable to people outside the state. Something that did help the Whirlybird out was the fact that ISU used it for so long through the McCarney years. It was the helmet logo for at least twice as long as pretty much every other one. Duration is about the only thing that helped it's poor branding. Give the I-State logo that much time and everyone will know who it is, if they don't already. I am also someone whose freshman year at ISU was 2004. We still had the whirlybird and I fell in love with Cyclone sports after growing up a hawkeye from watching Seneca Wallace and Troy Davis run in those helmets and jerseys.

I wasn't against them, it is just that they aren't branding. I guess I just agree with Jamie Pollard that it wasn't branding enough. I think we've done a much better job of getting the "I-State" out there, but I actually like the old walking Cy as the best logo, it unfortunately carries the same problem as the whirlybird.

I'm sorry this just doesn't make any sense. Really comparing logos from different eras is nearly impossible though. With the advent of new technology like the internet and everyone on tv of course new logos will be more recognizable. I also don't think that the whirly bird was used the longest. I don't know dates or anything but wasn't the cyclone cy used in like the early 60's through the 90's. That is 30 years. The whirly bird was used from the 90's until 2006 or whenever that is 16 years or so.

When you use them all the same and at the same time the one that best represents Iowa State is the whirly bird one. I can understand that some don't like the blue and can also understand if some don't like it because of what it is associated with. I get that people have developed personal opinions on the logos.

That said the updated version with the darker red replacing the blue is the single best representation of Iowa State. Whether it is your favorite or not is something different. If someone from say Africa was given an understanding of Iowa State and what a cyclone is and told to pick which would be best representative I would be surprised if they didn't pick the whirly bird.
 

KnappShack

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The toilet Cy looked horrible on the helmets. No one could tell what in the hell it was supposed to be

Used as a TV graphic it was no better than a random ink stain. I-State isn't perfect, but a huge step up from the McCarney era branding.
 

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