An era has ended at my alma mater Syracuse University. The school has officially changed the nickname of the school’s athletic teams from Orangemen/Orangewomen to just plain Orange. I guess the administration wanted the school to join other institutions such as Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, and Wellesley as schools whose athletic nicknames are colors. Unfortunately, the colors of these other schools cited can not be mistaken for a fruit. I don’t know if I like this move. I was partial to the old Orangemen monniker. They should have gone back to the Saltine Warrior!
I think one positive that can be taken from this move is the fact that they seem to have finally jettisoned that amazingly stupid logo that they force fed down our throats when I was there in the early 1990’s, along with several other logos, in favor of the one posted to the right. They seem to have addressed an obvious branding problem as there were several versions and instances of a Syracuse logo treatments out in the public eye with no unified treatment.
Now, if they ever considered changed the nickname to something like the Salukis, the Boll Weevils, or my personal favorite, the Palidins….hmm, I think I will stick with Orange.