Page 25 - Laker Connection Fall 2010

Barfield, as part of the University’s 40th anniversary and the Athletic Depart- ment’s 20th anniversary, unveiled a new athletic logo that is, quite candidly, a lot better looking than anything Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson or Kobe Bryant have played under. And, like most other sto- ries, there’s a history involved.
The real history of Clayton State’s athletic persona and image dates back to a couple of years after the first Lakers logo, when the dynamic duo of Dean of Students Bo Bolander and Director of Student Life Rob Taylor came up with a personification of a Laker, that is, Loch. The early ‘90s was a time of a great deal of speculation and searching for the Loch Ness Monster, so Bolander and Taylor dreamed up the Legend of Loch, a grown-up fairy tale that still appears on the Clayton State website at http://about.clayton.edu/legends.htm, and begins, and ends, “It’s no mystery that Clayton State is home to a diverse setting of students, but deep within the walls of this university a mystery, a se- cret is hiding, a secret that remains to be solved... So, what is this ‘Loch?’ Is it a beast? Is it a friend? We may never find out the answers to all of our many ques- tions, but it is worth the risk to find out. Is this the reason why this elusive crea- ture has become the mascot of our uni- versity? Many students think it is, and maybe you should as well.”
Bolander and Taylor claimed Loch was unearthed when the main lake on campus (now named Swan Lake) was created, thus becoming the Clayton State mascot. Over the years, there were several versions of Loch, however, Barfield wasn’t entirely satisfied with his “look.”
“It was more of a cartoonish Loch,” he says. “It was not a look that trans- lated well into a competitive, college ath- letics environment.”
So, in the mid to late ‘90s, the Ath- letic Department started moving towards the “C” logo.
The new display cases in the Athletics & Fitness Center feature the new Loch design.
“A lot of places used that style of logo,” Barfield recalls. “It played well for Clayton State Athletics. However, as we went along, I saw what other schools in our conference were doing with their logos.”
Thus motivated by other schools in the Peach Belt Conference, Barfield turned to the Conference’s licensing agency, which directed him to a couple of creative guys, Brad Bishop and Michael Thurman, operating as Torch Creative, out of Grapevine, Tx., an outfit that had already done some NBA and NHL work. In other words, Barfield heard it through the grapevine that these guys were good.
Good they were. Bishop and Thur- man came to the Clayton State campus, and met with representatives of the Ath- letic Department, External Relations and the student-athletes. Barfield de- scribed his vision of Loch to them as a combination of a real creature – a di- nosaur – and an imagined creature, a dragon.
“Just like we teach in higher educa- tion... a mix of reality and creativity,” he explains.
Torch and Clayton State exchanged various sample logos over a period of time, before finally hitting on the new look for Clayton State – an appropriately fierce Loch leaping out of the waters of the lake and forming a “C” in the bargain.
“This is just the first step in creating a mascot,” says Barfield. “We’re working on trademarking it and there’s already gear with the new logo in the University Bookstore.
“We’ve also used the new Loch in all of our new signage and displays in the Athletics and Fitness Center. The mascot and costume will transform our athletic image even more.”
After 20 years, there’s a new Loch at Clayton State.
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Then
Now