Oakland County Cruisers

What a down December for The Sports Logo Pundit. Not a way to end a pretty good year overall. Oh well, I hope to get back on the horse starting next week.

Until then, I would like to blow your mind with what is perhaps the saddest logo contest that I have ever come across. Last week, the Frontier League announced that in 2009 the Oakland County Cruisers would be joining the league. Never mind the fact that they don't yet have a ballpark, they have more than a year to get that done. But they did eschew the normal name-the-team contest and skipped straight to the logo selection process...


Oh boy, how will I ever choose? Do I go with the most horrible neon green in both baseball and automobile history or with the nearly unreadable scripts complete with gradients? And as a fan of rec league softball t-shirts, I'm really all about the clip-art background designs, it's about time someone brought these back to professional baseball.


Team: Oakland County Cruisers
League: Frontier League
Location: Waterford, Michigan
Merchandise: Sweet! You can buy shirts with at least three of the logo choices on them.

Port Huron IceHawks - UPDATED AGAIN!

Wow. Now that is on BAD logo. Seriously, I don't think there is anything left to say except...YUCK!


UPDATE - 7/27/2007...

And it just gets worse. For some reason, the IceHawks changed their colors to red and black. Why, I have no idea. I'd be wiling to bet it's because they got a good deal on red jerseys or had leftovers from the old Flags team that they can salvage. It's either that or they just want to capitalize on the Red Wings color scheme. Either way, it still stinks.


UPDATE - 10/12/07...

I've got to give it up to SLP commenter jonez who chimed in with "AM I the Only one seeing the word KINNEY within the iced tail feathers of the bird??" Good eyes jonez, I never even noticed that. You are absolutely correct, the word KINNEY is right there.

If you are wondering what that cryptic word means, it's pretty simple. Larry W. and Frank D. Kinney are the owners and president and governor respectively of the IceHawks. It explains so, so much.


Team: Port Huron IceHawks - or DrunkenParrots
League: International Hockey League - a few of the former UHL teams
Location: Port Huron, Michigan
Arena: McMorran Place

Picture stolen from the Port Huron Times Herald

Marquette Rangers

Michigan's Upper Peninsula has a new hockey team. The Marquette Rangers will join the Junior-A North American Hockey League for the 2006-2007 season playing in the city's Lakeview Arena. Marquette is a hockey town through and through with incredible high school hockey, the Northern Michigan University Wildcats and now the Rangers.

It is also a big mining town and the Rangers have done a great job of capturing that part of the area's culture in their logos. Both logos show exactly what Marquette is all about, mining and hockey. The first logo is great, simply because I love the crossed hockey stick and pick. The crossed sticks goes a long way with me in any logo.

But of course a team has to have a mascot so along comes this dude. Unfortunately they picked the most generic looking guy, you could easily trade out the hat and create any number of different logos. And I have said it before, but I will say it again - why can't we get some eyes on these mascot logos? What is it about the eyes that are so difficult? Are they so hard to draw that design companies charge more for them?

But what caught my eye about the Rangers is their ubiquitous use of slogans. On the front page of their website are two outstanding slogans...

"Life is short, do what makes you happy, watch Rangers hockey"
"Hockey with American ingenuity, Canadian grit and European flare"

But may I suggest a slogan that might work a little bit better...

"The Wildcats aren't playing and its ten below outside. What the hell else are you going to do in Marquette,Michigann?"

That would get me into the arena any day, because it's true.

Lansing Lugnuts

Like I said before, basically all I'm doing for these random reviews is going to OurSportsCentral, closing my eyes and clicking a whole bunch and wherever I land is what I review.

Today I landed on the Lansing Lugnuts. But really, what else can possibly be said about the Lugnuts logo that hasn't been said already. But I guess I'll have to say it anyway. THAT ISN'T EVEN A LUGNUT!!! IT'S A BOLT!!! Someone obviously didn't have a dictionary around when they designed this logo.

Other than that glaring mistake this logo isn't that bad. Sure it ushered in a ton of cheesy, goof ball logos after it was launched including the Lugnuts sister team, the Montgomery Biscuits. But at least it was original at the time.

Oh hell, I can't sugar coat this one. To me, the Lugnuts are to blame for a ton of the bad logos we see today. I wish it would have been stopped right away. But it is very popular, so who am I to judge?

Oakland Golden Grizzlies

Today we continue with our "Who Are These Schools?" series by introducing you to the Golden Grizzlies of Oakland University. The Golden Grizzlies are competing in their first NCAA Tournament and have already picked up a victory beating Alabama A&M 79-69 in the play-in game on Tuesday night.

Contrary to what you might think, Oakland University is no where near California. In fact it is in suburban Detroit. It is in the incredibly affluent town of Rochester, Michigan to be exact, a fact that they let you know prominently on their website. Oakland is a public institution of around 17,000 student that was founded in 1959 as Michigan State University-Oakland but changed it's name to Oakland University in 1963.

The Oakland athletic teams were called the Pioneers until 1997 when the university decided to move from Division II to Division I. A committee narrowed the field of mascot possibilities down to three, the Golden Grizzlies, the Saber Cats and the old nickname, the Pioneers. Ultimately the decision was wisely made to use the Golden Grizzlies.

"It's original, it ties in directly with our school colors, and it represents the new, aggressive nature of our athletic program's move to Division I competition," said Athletic Director Jack Mehl.

Apparently that aggressive nature has worked for Oakland as they are now knocking on history's door. They are only 13-18 on the season but they have been red hot as of late and will take on #1 seeded North Carolina on Friday in Charlotte. It sounds totally crazy but I really think that of all the #16 seeds, Oakland actually has a decent chance at an upset which would be the first time a #16 has ever beaten a #1. They played an extremely tough non-conference schedule and should be ready. If they shoot like they are capable of doing, it could be a much closer game than one would ever expect.

Besides, that bear is pretty badass. Much tougher than a Tar Heel whatever that is. And that is, of course, how I pick my brackets.