1 Dec 2005. The closest 'big time' university to my home, it is surprising it turned up this late in the CCP. This cup later made an appearance in the short film Uphoria, which was pitched to the Travel Channel who ultimately declined it. The catchphrase that all the kids are using, "There was a bar on campus. That's right - a bar!!" came out of this taping!
New posts will appear on Mondays now instead of Sunday after the acquisition of College Cup Project by Chick-fil-A Properties, Inc.
5 Nov 2005. Yon colonial ales doth best be served in chill-ed tumblers! The logo on the cup in the photo is no longer the official athletic logo. The NCAA served W&M, along with many other schools, an ultimatum requiring the end of such offensive imagery to Native American peoples or else be banned from hosting postseason competitions. The original intent of the rule, to eliminate hurtful or innaccurate terms like redskin, indian, savage, etc. had been completely undermined at that point to be laughable and arbitrary. The Florida State Seminoles were allowed to continue their name and tradition of having an Indian chief ride a horse to midfield at football games carrying a massive spear. FSU claimed the Seminole tribe allowed usage of their name. The Illinois Fighting Illini were allowed to keep their name as well, deftly tapdancing their way to an explanation that the word 'Illini' denotes an Illinois resident, not just the tribal peoples. Then comes the W&M Tribe - formerly the Indians. The two feathers on the logo were deemed too harsh for our eyes and must be erased from all uniforms, letterheads, websites, fields, signage, co-eds' cheeks, etc. It has since been replaced by a classy but vanilla 'W&M' logo (see below) befitting an institution in its fourth century, but to have to change it at all was the most offensive aspect of this whole debacle. Gene Nichol, the University President got off a scathing parting shot to the NCAA that is both informative and entertaining. And Williamsburg was proud.
5 Nov 2005. Richmond gets a bad rap sometimes, and so does VCU by association, due to street crime. But they've done better recently and VCU has improved their campus as well. Nothing too noteworthy here, whether it be the bookstore, campus, ram-less cup design, or backstory. So here's a fictionalized summary of what happened:
Out of the muck of the James River crawled a man-beast. This man-beast was created one drunken night when a lonely vintner in Albemarle County got too friendly with one of his pet goats. Horrified at what was birthed months later, the winemaker took it far, far away, to a completely different culture: Richmond, Virginia. The city people of Richmond would be able to dispose of it in a cold act that the Charlottesville citizen could not bring himself to commit. In the rain, he set the little half-goat on the banks of the James, not permitting himself to look back as he walked away. In his mind, he was simply allowing nature to take its course. The waters above engorged the waters beneath. The abandoned crate held tight to its hideous cargo as it was swept away. Little did anyone know that the goat-human hybrid was hardier than most other goat-human hybrids. It survived the storm and landed on Belle Island, subsisting for many years on grubs, weeds, and chicken offal from KFC. It allayed its boredom with discarded books from Richmond's closed libraries. The fearsome beast's liberal education and growing interest in the world around him led 'Rammy' - as various news reports on his sighting would call him - to seek funding for a land grant institution. The welcoming people of Richmond, unaccustomed to a man-beast as they may have been, were glad to see a local interested in the education of its people. Years of administrative toil lay ahead, but they would soon pay off. Rammy was overjoyed when the doors finally opened to Virginia Commonwealth University. He served as its first president and athletic mascot.
3 Sept 2005. What a delight the UIC bookstore was. Two-storied, with entrances on both ends and a shared open wall to the student center. There was ample space to merchandise a wide array of goods and still have enough elbow room for comfortable navigation. It is an urban campus, but unlike DePaul, it is contained in its own little area of Chicago, east of the Loop. It's a short walk from the UIC-Halsted El stop - as one would hope - and a new neighborhood is evolving to cater to the non-academic needs of the students and faculty. I recommend the beverage selection at Morgan's @ Maxwell. But they will not dispense your drinks in a too-fat-for-one-hand transparent insulated tumbler.
As far as the athletic logo, it seems a bit gruesome to stylize a great disaster in your city's history, but why stop at a building engulfed in a conflagration when you could show turn of the century tenement dwellers reaching up to the sky, praying for the sweet release of death as they...okay, my point has been made. Go Flames!
3 Sept 2005. DePaul is right off an El train stop in upper Chicago. DePaul blends in nicely with the urban setting, not trying too hard to stand out, knowing that Chitown is a huge place without a long enough attention span to stop and observe. Small bookstore for a huge campus. Again, acknowledging that a bevy of locally owned campus supply shops would pop up no matter how much retail square footage was committed by Barnes & Noble. They were founded on religious principles, specifically Vincentian. I don't know what Vincentian means, so it's probably like Jesuit, meaning they are good at starting colleges but not so great at keeping members. When was the last time you met a Jesuit or a Vincentian?
If you are liking the logos here, go ahead and kill an hour at SportsLogos.net. The public comments on the logos crack me up. For example, they encourage Marvel comics to sue, claiming that DePaul stole the Nightcrawler character from X-Men. The collection at that site dwarfs anything that will be displayed on the CCP. Now if you don't mind, I have to tend to an 'unlawful verbiage' subpoena from the Dwarf Anti-defamation League.
1 July 2005. Never having seen a volcano or a volcanic island, I was stunned at the sight of the vegetated Hawai'ian mountains jutting out of the horizon. They are the green version of the crags in the western U.S., but because of their igneous properties, they form much more vertically and fill most of your vision. Volcanic soil is very fertile and there is an abundance of plant life that sprouts up. Perhaps because of the natural beauty of these islands, the University of Hawai'i's flagship campus in the Manoa valley is riddled with awful concrete buildings. Just as I was taken aback at the amazing feats of nature, I was mostly confused at how much of the school aims to be a sore thumb. Maybe the original architects figured there was no way to compete with the environment and just gave up. Or maybe concretin' was the cool thing for architects to do back then.
But they got it right with the athletic logo and all its associated identities. A deep green - Kelly? Hunter? - accented with silver and black. The men are the Rainbow Warriors and the women are the Rainbow Wahine, pronounced wah-hee-nay. The NCAA's battle against Native American mascots and imagery proves it is nothing more than arbitrary halfassery in glossing over Hawai'i. I am glad they did.
2 April 2005. Southern California entices you to live there with its sunny moderate climate. Southern California dares you to live there with earthquakes, wildfires, high cost of living, horrendous motorcar traffic and the accompanying smog. This day happened to be disaster-free, and after utilizing the thinly-stretched public bus system, I arrived at Long Beach State, or simply, "The Beach" as their marketing literature calls it. School was in session and it was a brilliant day that the student body had anticipated for a while. The sky was cloudless and Earl Warren Drive was free of detritus save for fallen palm fronds. The atomic fountains misted passersby and the big blue Walter Pyramid distracted pilots approaching Daugherty Field. Yes, this was a day that orientation brochure photographers dream of. They even had an outdoor swimming pool at their student center, but it seemed like a necessary luxury in this environment. And outdoor escalators too! Who has outdoor escalators?
The two story built-in bookstore had a wide selection of - oh, what's this? A big tumbler in an uncollected color? I simply must have it!
Brother Mathias.
There is no specific date for the JMU entry as I have collected a few along the years. Only a handful are shown in this photo here. There are two generic giant tumblers that fit in with the rest, a couple of pilsners that reveal the Duke Dog's face at the bottom of the glass when you finish your Dominion root beer, a glass bottle filled with purple and gold candies, a bulldoggin' reusable travel mug that I actually designed for a contest, a commemorative Madison Century soda bottle, an insulated stadium cup, and various other plastic throwaways. The 'Duke Dog and JMU' design has been replaced in some instances solely by the Duke Dog's head and collar for simplicity's sake. Other than the 'what does a duke have to do with a bulldog?' question, this logo is solid in layout and color. It could use more purple, but the two color version satisfies that argument.
In December 2004, JMU won their first Division I-AA football national championship without even playing a game in Harrisonburg. They were the first team to win four straight road games on their way to winning the title: Lehigh, Furman, William & Mary, and Montana (at a neutral site in Chattanooga).
JMU is another school in the Appalachians, specifically the Shenandoah Valley, an underrated part of the country visually and naturally. Be warned, Interstate 81 always has heavy truck traffic (as a north-south alternate to Interstate 95) but get around that and you will find civil war history, small town hospitality, gorgeous scenery, and open air poultry tractor trailers. Pluck 'em if you got 'em.
27 Nov 2004. Goodman Stadium in eastern Pennsylvania was filling up as the first round of the Division I-AA football playoffs approached. The expansive grass lots were receiving the ant trails of tailgating vehicles, their passengers layered up in anticipation of a chilly few hours. No longer the Engineers, Mountain Hawk fans could shop for rebranded souvenirs at a temporary canvas tent located between the main entrance and the field. The selection was mainly cold weather apparel, but there was a fat cup that later revealed its own mortality from a spin in the Whirlpool. There's something about wide tumblers and nondishwashersafeness it seems.
15 Nov 2004. "The Dub" lies on a flat, sandy, pine-stippled expanse on the east side of the port town of Wilmington. Their seahawk logo needs work, they need cash, and they belong to an indifferent athletic conference (the CAA's feeling may be fueled by Dub lacking that big money sport, American football). But a school cannot buy the priceless beach location - and the beach bodies - that make up the campus here. I chose my first rocks glass of the CCP, which later broke in transit. It was replaced on a subsequent trip back to North Carolina with the first coffee mug. Good thing though, that rocks glass was seriously unattractive. The moulding was fine but on it was etched an outline of 'UNCW' in fugly block letters that did not resemble any typeface the school has ever used. No photo survives to this day.
6 Nov 2004. Hempstead, Long Island, New York. In between Kennedy Airport and Theodore Roosevelt's Sagamore Hill lies Hofstra, home of the...Pride. Hey, let's upgrade the sweetness of the Flying Dutchmen moniker for an improvement I hope?! No, just some big hairy cohabitating cats. But back in 2004 the nickname was still in limbo and there was not much of a logo to speak of. This nondescript tumbler is one of the worst on the list. The campus, a collection of brilliantly gray skydorms, is redeemed by a funky pedestrian tunnel bridge and the Islanders' arena next door. Hey, Hofstra's in the news for hosting the final 2008 presidential debate so this is a nice coincidence.
On this same day 400 miles south in Harrisonburg, a full and excited stadium witnessed this.
12 Oct 2004. Rae Ri! Ol' VPI! Hokie Hokie Hokie Hi! The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is located in Blacksburg in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, whose autumn vistas will long remain in your memory. Cassell Colisum, home to their basketball and volleyball teams, has steep concrete arches that would provide a good venue for Spider-Men- and traceurs-in-training. If my shoes only had a little more traction...! The classic VT logo that appears on many licensed products due to its simplicity in design and color graces this pint glass, with 'Tech Triumph' (school song? fight song?) on the reverse. My favorite pint in terms of layout.
1 Oct 2004. I only had a half-hour to find TU's bookstore, race in, quickly peruse the selection and make a purchase, and race back to the Towson Center before we faced off against the Tigers! I made it there just as they were closing. The staff allowed me in and I found a hardy little cup, the bubble-filled plastic giving your flat Fresca an appearance of new life. Thankfully, Towson had recently upgraded their logo from the old one that frightened little children with its gargoyle-like sneer, pictured below. A simple bold logo on a simple bold cup makes the Towson Tumbler one of my favorites.
Later on at William & Mary I saw the same bubbly style (but with green plastic) yet I could not allow myself to dilute the awesomeness that I found in suburban Maryland.
10 Sept 2004. Some universities, noting the impending boom in eligible applicants, have realized that the scales of higher education are starting to tip in favor of the students. Community colleges and online classes are exploding. Students are taking general education classes while still at home, avoiding the costs of room and board. To lure the kids back to their dorms, they are starting to offer perks that seemed unimaginable even a generation ago. Catered meals, free transportation, and extravagant student gyms complete with waterslides are some of the carrots on the end of the academic stick. But then these institutions are saddled with the responsibility to still emphasize that their school is first and foremost a place of learning, not leisure. Some schools, however, cannot be bothered to put on such high airs. You can make your own conclusion about Texas State University in San Marcos (formerly Southwest Texas State), which has a 'lazy river' running behind the Bobcats' Strahan Coliseum and through campus.
As an aside, I picked up this fat little tumbler at the souvenir table during a volleyball match.
The last day of July 2004. Down by the river in Huntington where West Virginia meets Kentucky and Ohio for a threeway in God's country. A quiet blanket lay over the town for these were the pre-McConaughey days. The pint glass was very informative, just short of a graduate thesis. The only thing missing from the design was a cartoon drawing of their bison mascot (their team name is not just the Herd, but the Thundering Herd).
We are! Marshall!
31 July 2004. Another rainy day. It was a weekend morning in Lexington and the campus bookstore was closed! Could I possibly secure a cup from an off-campus vendor and still include it in the CCP? Oh what a conundrum! I decided: Yes. Well, we found one that was open - if I remembered the name I would gladly plug them here - and I picked up my first imprinted pint glass. The good thing about pint glasses is that they are the same size: pint sized.
Making it as far as the official bookstore only to find it closed had happened before. Literally, the day before in Nashville at Vanderbilt. But I was not resourceful enough 24 hours earlier to find an unofficial store. This occurred many times afterward: UMass Boston, Northeastern, Texas El Paso, VMI, and Missouri State. At that last location in Springfield, I had found a campus convenience store where MSU Bears mugs were on display. I could reach through the slot in the metal barrier and HOLD ONE but could not pull it through. (Don't worry I would have left money if I had been able to take it home.)
30 July 2004. Unfortunately, each trip to a previous campus - save for Delaware - had bad weather, either soaking or steaming. But now, puttering through the pleasant little town of Bowling Green, the sun shone clear. This was the first convenient stop on a swing through the Ohio Valley (oddly enough, none of the schools were from the Ohio Valley athletic conference). The first of three was WKU. It was immaculately clean due to the finishing touches of the grounds crews before droves of Hilltoppers returned to the dorms. Even the "Diddle" on E.A. Diddle arena was spotless. I picked up two cheap polygonal tumblers that I was disappointed were not the same size as the others. If I were to visit again, I would not leave without a souvenir of their bulbous mascot, Big Red, posing provocatively below.
March 2004. I holed up in a friend's dorm for the first half of spring break. The region around South Hadley, Massachusetts, is not the typical young person's idea of a vacation until you learn it is the home of Mount Holyoke and four other colleges. (I did not take the initiative to visit those schools.) Since MHC was not quite as commercialized as a big public university, their selection was sparse. I picked up a squat tumbler from their bookstore, not as an addition to the CCP but simply as a souvenir. As you can see the printing is not dishwasher safe. Later the same friend mailed me a shotglass and I decided to include schools that did not participate in Division I athletics - MHC competes in the Division III New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference.
On the same trip, I made a dental memory. Grabbing a late night bite at the main student center, I chipped my tooth on a piece of lettuce. But to credit the lettuce, it was a crunchy part of the leaf.
Early March 2004. The air was moist but it was hard to tell whether its source was natural or artificial. The young Spartans were away on their semester-splitting spring break. With the extra breathing room the maintenance staff was working double time to replace worn grass with bright new turf, soaked to the gills from misting sprinklers. The rolls of lawn were not the only thing about the campus that felt brand new; there was construction all over the place. I was visiting on official business, an odd location to hold a convention to be sure, but UNCG had just opened a massive addition to the student center and was eager to show off its newest asset. Even though classes were out of session, the university bookstore was open, thankfully, as I could not imagine the next time I would pass through G-Bo. Also lucky was the fact that UNCG, relatively unknown compared to the other schools I had visited, carried the same style of tumbler. This company gets around! Later the struggle to find the same cup led me to expand into mugs, shotglasses, etc. But for now, the collection of five stacked together quite neatly.
Sometime in 2004, one year before I discovered you can have a soft side for a town by spending a couple months living there despite its large private university being an athletic rival and consistently leapfrogging your hometown in "Best Places To Live" matrices, I found myself in Charlottesville purchasing another cookie cutter tumbler dotted with the sharp but somewhat anemic "V Saber" logo. If anyone knows the firm that contracts to make these collegiate licensed cups, let me know. I would gladly acknowledge them, but there is no etched copyright, company name, volume in either ounce or congius, nothing!
Fun fact: Did you know the founding of the University was one of three accomplishments Thomas Jefferson wanted etched on his gravestone? Yes, if you know a UVA grad or student, they have eagerly told you that many times over.
First half of 2004. Exit 1 off of Interstate 95 into Newark. Pronounce the town right and you'll be welcomed into this public university where the most delicious of birds are hallowed sacred. When a school has such a wacky mascot as a Blue Hen, I try to grab a cup with its likeness. But at the beginning of the CCP, I was more interested in keeping with the oversized tumbler theme. One could do worse than the classic interlocking UD, but it does not capture the full Delaware identity that includes YoUDee, their unusually well-rendered cartoon chicken, and the bright blues and yellows.
February 2004. I could not discern the weather as the university bookstore was connected to the billiards and bowling hall by a maze of doors and stairs. There was a break in the action thanks to my opponent being a no-show so I decided to pick out a souvenir. UTK, along with Texas at Austin, houses its men's athletic programs completely separate from the women. They even have slightly different logos - the women have sky blue script reading "Lady Volunteers" over the traditional big orange T. I saw a big ol' tumbler that was the same style as the USC one, only different coloring. This is when the whole collection idea began. Four-plus years later, the whim is still going strong.
January 2004. It was a drizzly weekday afternoon in the canyonlands of Los Angeles, California. The nation had been stricken with a fever, a fever for once and future man-child quarterback Matt Leinart. The USC Bookstore was flooded with Rose Bowl merchandise and customers, despite classes being suspended for winter break. Half-heartedly browsing for a keepsake for some reason, nothing struck my fancy. I eventually settled on a gigantic plastic tumbler for its practical use. Thankfully the date of the Rose Bowl was etched on the side, letting my future self know the exact date (or at least the exact year) when this escapade known as the College Cup Project came to be.
