Third is the highest we’ve been ranked in anything sports related in quite some time, and don’t be so quick to dismiss it. Alabama counts football national tittles for being ranked #1 in the equivalent of Billy Bob’s Bait Shop College Football Weekly.
Yes on Clemson, but Clemson is, and has been, a national brand and if a green paw showed up in a graphic on TV, most would think it was an color error and never think of Ohio. Thanks to the attack cat you can live around he country and have a logo that answers the question... what school is that? In this regaurd, the paw was useless, except at homecoming.
The paw reaches a narrow audience that, other than alumni, barely gets beyond Athens County.
Good news, you can continue to enjoy paw products whenever it’s time for OU to protect the copyright and make some.
To the Groce haters, how many games in the power 5 will Saul be head coaching?
How’s the baseball team looking?
Except the fact the Clemson Paw and the OHIO Paw are very different in every way.
Well, tell that to the people at Clemson. They threatened legal action when our paw was first introduced until someone, probably one of our lawyers, pointed out to them that a tiger paw and a bobcat paw looked a little different. And, of course, it's so darn generic that you couldn't really get a trademark on the concept of using an animal paw as a logo.
My quick understanding of the Clemson paw is that it's based off of a plaster mold of a tiger's paw from the Museum of Natural History in Chicago. A signature element of its trademark is a small little hook in the bottom right that was distinctive of the print taken from the animal. Most high schools etc. that "borrow" the logo have a version without that hook as a first step to avoid any legal trouble. The frayed edges of the Clemson paw are a lot more unique (and authentic to a real tiger) than most of your generic prints used for everything from wildcats to bulldogs.
Don't know how often a lot of these throwback logos popular on shirts were used in their day but it seemed like Clemson was another school in the south who were the Tigers with a fairly generic looking logo (the sailor hat cat shows up for Clemson, Auburn and LSU on these shirts). Prior to the pawprint it looks like they were even more generic with a stylized "C" on the helmet (for a time even using the "wishbone" C synonymous with the Reds and Bears).
Most high school and down athletic directors probably don't take the time/have the knowledge to know the difference between the various animal prints. Most likely picked from an offering that the uniform/scoreboard/gym floor company gave them at one time. Having looked through various spirit catalogs and such, they sell temporary tattoos etc. with generic animal prints in a variety of colors but not necessarily distinctive to wolves, dogs, cats etc. The Ohio pawprint logo, while pretty accurate, in my opinion, falls more into a generic paw logo category.
Too many high schools and youth programs use "borrowed" logos for my liking but that's an entirely different discussion. What high schools are currently using some version of the attack cat? A few that come to my mind that I've seen are Waterford (used as a wildcat but currently I think they are back to a more traditional logo) and Cambridge (also the Bobcats). The former Brookhaven High (who were technically the Bearcats) in Columbus used it for a time prior to closing.
Last Edited: 2/4/2019 8:38:26 AM by OUcats82