Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Are you bored because Kansas football has a bye week? Here’s an idea. Let’s talk about fonts. These different portrayals of the printed word are all around us. See that PowerPoint slide in Earthquakes and Natural Disasters class? It’s Arial Black. See that writing on the shirt of that creepy Wescoe Beach hippy? Looks like Comic Sans to me. So while fonts have given us nothing but joy over the years, a certain Trajan font has become more despised in Lawrence than William Quantrill and the Alcohol Beverage Control combined.
Ever since Kansas Athletics announced that the font on the KU basketball uniforms will be changed to Trajan, Jayhawk message boards have been lit up with protests. A few angry alums have started a Web site dedicated to derailing the font change.
The rallying cry of most Kansas fans has sounded a little like this.
“It’s a travesty, an abomination, how dare they mess with tradition.”
The only problem? The current “Circus” or ”Olde English-” looking font you see on the basketball jerseys isn’t really that old. The font has only been around since the 1997-98 season. Before that Jacque Vaugn, Raef Lafrentz, and the rest of the early 90s Kansas teams were wearing a slight variation of the current font. A similar look, but definitely not the current style. And what about JoJo White in the 70s and Wilt Chamberlain in the 50s? They were decked out in uniforms with standard block lettering — similar to what we’ve seen on the girls’ basketball squad’s jerseys during the last few years.
Okay. Let’s not get bogged down in the aesthetics of font styles. But the point is that as new generations of students spend time on Mt. Oread, the definition of tradition at Kansas will always change.
Sure, we’ll always wave the wheat, do the Rock Chalk chant, and swim in the Chi-O fountain. But times change. I’m sure they didn’t have the “Dancing Nachos” at basketball games when Wilt was playing, and I bet Bob Dole never had the chance to grub on deece Wheel Pizza on a Thursday night.
Kansas has gone through change before. In 1946, a KU student named Harold D. Sandy designed a new smiling version of the Jayhawk. The symbol is now synonymous around the world with the University of Kansas. But when the new, more child-friendly Jayhawk was first introduced, I’m sure there were Jayhawk fans who longed for the scowling war-time Jayhawk that preceded it.
Doesn’t it all depend on what you grew up with? This columnist longs for those beloved basketball jerseys worn from 1997-98 to 2002-2003. With a classy blue arch on the shorts and triangular blue trim on the side, the home whites were uniform perfection. But is it the uniform I long for, or the players? Do I really need those uniforms to return, or would I just like to see Kirk Hinrich in the open floor, running the secondary break one last time? I think it’s the latter. Players make uniforms. Uniforms don’t make players.
Listen, this columnist isn’t trying to defend the athletic department. The choice of Trajan as the official font of the University of Kansas is a terribly poor miscalculation. It seems from an outsider’s perspective that the font change on the uniforms (the football and volleyball team are already sporting Trajan lettering) is more about justifying the money paid to a Portland design company that advised Kansas Athletics on the change than actually improving the look of KU uniforms.
But in the end, Kansas basketball will always be Kansas basketball. And when Brandon Rush is standing on a ladder at the Final Four in April, cutting down the nets after a Kansas National Championship, nobody is going to care about what font he has on his chest.
—Edited by Luke Morris
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Comments
What’s in a font?
First of all, the true KANSAS font is called "Pointedly Mad." Any true fan has it on their computer. And it looks nothing like Old English. Do you know anything at all about fonts? You shouldn't be allowed to write columns anymore. Talk to anyone affiliated with college basketball and they all say KU's font is the most classy in the NCAA. Not anymore though. Way to be conformist, KU.
What’s in a font?
also, in the 1970s, JoJo White was in the NBA playing for the Celtics. Do you actually know things or just bang your head on the keyboard until words and sentences show up?
What’s in a font?
Dude, there's no way the use of Trajan on uniforms is only "about justifying money paid to a Portland design company." Uniforms are part of Self's recruiting arsenal, and having a more current design makes sense if that's what appeals to kids coming out of high school. Also, revenue from jersey sales is important to the athletic department, and creating a new look provides another reason for people to drop some money on gear.
And it's Jacque Vaughn, not Jacque Vaugn.
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