On Monday, April 13, the Indianapolis Colts revealed its minor uniform changes for the 2020 season.
Among the changes is the introduction of a new secondary logo.
Love the new #colts secondary logo! pic.twitter.com/SVQg4Z0AW3
— Indy Beer Sleuth (@Indybeersleuth) April 13, 2020
Of course, the C stands for the Colts, and the state of Indiana is outlined in the center of it.
The nails are consistent with those in the horseshoe logo.
Less than 24 hours later, the Colts were put on notice that their new secondary logo may not be so original after all.
Hey @UniWatch @PhilHecken surely the @colts wouldn’t have poached that secondary logo from a local Indianapolis high school, would they? https://t.co/xcTCSQ32NH
— Kub (@The_Real_Kub) April 13, 2020
Background
Cathedral High School, a Catholic school in Indianapolis Indiana, used a similar logo for the 2017 signing day and for other programs over the years.
Apparently, the logo is not visible on Cathedral’s website, but that claim cannot be verified since Cathedral’s website is currently down.
The logo was created by Cathedral High School’s former football coach, Jere Kubuske.
@CoachKubuske is his Twitter handle, and it was active yesterday.
When asked if the Colts had seen Cathedral’s logo before, Coach Kubuske said,
“We tagged them regularly in posts because of using their facilities, playing in their stadium.”
Coach Kubuske is correct.
Cathedral High School won five consecutive state football titles, from 2011 through 2015.
All of the championship games were played at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Kubuske indicated that his logo was designed in February 2016.
Therefore, it was developed after the state titles and apparently not hanging in Lucas Oil Stadium during those games.
Regardless, it certainly seems as though the Colts had to see Cathedral’s logo before yesterday for the following reasons:
#1 Both the Colts and Cathedral are located in Indianapolis.
#2 Cathedral and the Colts have crossed paths; Cathedral played at Lucas Oil Stadium, and the Colts were tagged on occasional Cathedral social media posts.
#3 No one from the Colts has come out and refuted anything Coach Kubuske has said in the past 24 hours.
Similarities
There are many more similarities than differences between the two logos.
Though the Cs are different fonts, they still look a lot alike.
The inset of the state of Indiana is universally acknowledged as being identical.
Differences
It is a strain to find any, but the nail holes which signify the horseshoe do make the two logos look slightly different.
In different iterations, Cathedral High School has inserted a clover or a cross inside the inset of the state of Indiana.
The Colts thankfully did not put the horseshoe inside of it.
That would make the logo look busy and even more like Cathedral’s version.
Fallout
Coach Kubuske has embraced the old adage, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Though he has left Cathedral and relocated to Wisconsin, yesterday he playfully thanked the Colts for ripping off his logo.
Much to the delight of conspiracy theorists, that is not the end of the story evolving on Twitter.
Folks in Cleveland said that the shape of Ohio is often inserted in their C.
To be fair, the “let’s put the shape of the state in the gap of a letter” is hardly a new concept. Here in Cleveland it’s essentially a requirement to use the shape of Ohio inside of a C or as an O in “Ohio”. Yours is pretty identical to theirs tho pic.twitter.com/VuCPsE70W5
— My quarantine burner acct 🍀 (@EvadLOL) April 13, 2020
Does it matter whose idea it was originally?
Probably not especially since it is a secondary logo that is being positioned inside the uniform.
It will be practically invisible which will likely end the “controversy”.
Leave a Reply