ELON COLLEGE, N.C. – The new Elon College athletics identity will be announced at an all-campus gathering at 9:45 a.m., Tuesday, May 9. The event will be held at the east entrance to Koury Center, and will feature the unveiling of the new nickname and primary graphic symbol.
New information leading up to the announcement will be posted daily on the Elon Web site (www.elon.edu/e-net) beginning May 2. The new identity will be posted on the site at 10:30 a.m. May 9.
The Elon College Board of Trustees voted in October 1999 to retire Fightin’ Christians, the current athletics identity, and adopt a new nickname. A 15-member task force, including student-athletes and a student government representative, trustees, alumni, coaches, faculty and staff members, has been working to choose the new name and design the primary graphic symbol. The task force was co-chaired by Alan White, director of athletics, and Nan Perkins, vice president for institutional advancement.
SFX Sports Group, a world leader in strategic brand building specializing in sports-related identities, assisted the college in researching and creating the new identity.
More than 200 members of the Elon College community suggested more than 125 names in November-December 1999. Those names, along with others generated by SFX, were evaluated by more than 120 people representing all of the college’s constituencies. They took part in focus groups or completed surveys in December 1999 and January 2000.
The most popular names were then evaluated by the task force, with four finalist names forwarded to graphic designers who created visual representations. The final name was selected in March, and further design work on the graphic symbol took place in April.
Further work on the identity will take place this summer. Designers will create secondary graphic symbols, create a mascot and integrate the new identity into Elon athletics publications and other applications.
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