Lawrence University

For more than a century, Lawrence University athletics has been about the blue, but it was several decades into sports at the college before we became Vikings.
 
Lawrence athletics traces its official start to 1889 when it invited the fellows wearing red to a track and field day, and that marks the beginning of a rivalry with Ripon College that exists to this day. Football came on the scene in the fall of 1893 and the team played three games, the lone victory a 48-0 pasting of Oshkosh State Normal School (now the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh) on a field in the vicinity of where City Park now stands.
 
According to Lawrence's former Director of Publicity and Publications Marguerite Schumann, those first football teams were a jumble, "none of the uniforms matched, and jersey colors ranged from pumpkin yellow to purple. The only thing they had in common (was a) big scraggly L." Schumann added that when the team could finally afford real uniforms, spectators complained that all the men looked alike.   
 

The Blues

The advent of matching uniforms for Lawrence teams led to the different squads – football, basketball, track and field – to be known as the Blues (the swimmers were the Blue Fish). College teams were often known by the color of their jerseys in the early decades of the 20^th century.
 
The wearing of dark blue jerseys became entrenched under the guidance of football coach and Lawrence Hall of Famer Mark Catlin, who guided the gridders from 1909-18 and again from 1924-27. A football and track legend at the University of Chicago, Catlin was a big believer in the psychology of sport. According to Schumann, "he insisted on skin-tight dark blue jerseys, which made his men look smaller, a deliberate part of his psychology."

 
Catlin's football strategy and psychology worked as he put together a 55-29-7 record over 13 seasons and won five conference championships (four in the old Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Association and one in the Midwest Conference).

The Vikings

It was during Catlin's tenure as football coach that the search for a nickname started. In January 1926, the sports staff of the student newspaper, The Lawrentian, held a contest to pick a new mascot or team name, and the winner earned a trip to the Lawrence-Marquette basketball game in Milwaukee. The headline in The Lawrentian announcing the contest read, " 'The Blues' Is No Name For a Snappy Team. What's a New One?"
 
The winner was Steven Cincowsky '29, who had entered the name Vikings for the contest. The final vote was Vikings 252, Blue Jays 56, Trojans 46, Wildcats 22, Lumberjacks 12, Pinesmen 12 and Oneidas 7.
 
The Viking name did not take a firm hold until 1929, when the Ariel yearbook took on a Viking theme. The Ariel featured a Viking ship, but a standard logo for the athletic teams didn't really exist until the 1960s. Uniforms were vastly different in those days with a simple "Lawrence" or "Vikings" sewn onto basketball jerseys, and football helmets were leather until they were replaced by blue or white plastic helmets. The Viking ship remained in use as photos through the 1950s show coaches wearing clothing featuring the ship.
 

The Viking Head

The Viking head logo made its first appearance in the 1960s and was a decal on Lawrence football helmets as early as 1968. Prior to that, the player's jersey number adorned the helmet. Lawrence went to the Viking horn on its helmet in 1974 and that was used through 1992. Lawrence football used multiple helmet logos until it went back to the Viking horn in 1999. That was used until 2015 when the team went to its current interlocking LU logo on one side of the helmet and the player's number on the other side.
 
From the 1970s to now, the Viking head logo has been used in different variations extensively by Lawrence athletics. Lawrence has also used a block L and multiple variations of the interlocking LU on everything from baseball caps to soccer uniforms throughout the decades. The current interlocking LU logo has been in use since 2013.

 

The Viking Ship

And now all that was old is new again with the return of a stunning new Viking ship logo.

Lawrence proudly unveiled a new athletics identity, steeped in centuries of tradition, in April 2021. Visual elements of the university's history adorn this new image: the antelope head and shield from the family crest of Amos Lawrence, founder of his namesake university in 1847; the interlocking LU, signifier of Lawrence athletics for decades; all washed in the blue that has marked Lawrence athletics since the 1800s.