UConn apologizes after blatantly ripping off NC State logo
The UConn Huskies started a new initiative on Wednesday night to rebrand its student section at basketball games as “The Pack” to improve school spirit after several down seasons for the men’s and women’s teams.
The school released a sleek new logo that featured three canines in front of trees with “UConn” and “The Pack” emblazoned across a shield.
There was only one problem: The animals were wolves, not huskies, and were directly lifted from an alternative NC State Wolfpack logo the school has used since 2006.
Hmm. https://t.co/P0IA3rsLTP pic.twitter.com/IDGwzPIueG
— Bronce the 4th (@bronceIV) September 19, 2019
The similarities are striking. The animals have the exact same color and outlines; it was just cropped higher than the NC State logo. The wolves were not even altered to look more like huskies.
After realizings its mistake, UConn took down the press release announcing “The Pack,” and it’s unclear if they’ll run with the renamed student section going forward. The school apologized through an athletic department spokesman.
“We committed an unacceptable misstep by using an NC State mark as a centerpiece of this logo. As soon as the mistake came to light, we removed the logo from all our digital platforms and reached out to NC State to apologize. The apology was accepted in generous fashion by NC State and we will be taking corrective actions internally to ensure something of this nature never happens again.”
The university said that an undergraduate created the logo, and they will take steps to ensure that they don’t publish stolen intellectual property going forward.
NC State was quick to forgive UConn, probably because this isn’t the first time they’ve tussled with a school over a wolf logo. Back in 2007, Nevada ripped off their Mr. Wuf logo and ultimately chose a different logo rather than battle it out in court.
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