OT: Union name change

[classof95]

The dog looks like it's going to the bathroom.

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by classof95

[bob87]

1 hour ago, UAlbany09 said:

Looks like Siena is also making some changes, this time by designing a new logo. It’s also pretty terrible. 
 

https://www.wamc.org/news/2023-08-21/siena-colleges-updated-logo-gets-mixed-reaction-from-saints-faithful

Well in defense of the designer of the logo,  there isn't anything they could do to make it look good. 😉 

[cwdickens]

UNION FOOTBALL

 

Same ‘U,’ new enthusiasm

 

By Mark Singelais

Lori Van Buren/Times Union

New Union head football coach Jon Poppe said the team will stay with its traditional U logo.

SCHENECTADY — The Union College football team will enter its Sept. 2 opener at Hilbert College with a first-year head coach, a new nickname and fresh enthusiasm, according to players.

However, the Garnet Chargers (formerly known as the Dutchmen) will keep the old logo on their helmets, head coach Jon Poppe said Tuesday during media day.

 

Poppe said Union will still wear the solid U, not the U with a lightning bolt unveiled during the nickname change this month that has received some criticism.

“We’re still with the block U,” Poppe said. “Still rocking the block U on the helmet and don’t know what the future holds, but we’re excited to play football and represent Union College.”

Poppe, a Harvard assistant the past five years, said he was not asked by the college to change the logo.

“We had already kind of had everything in place before the mascot change, the logo change, so that’s what we’re wearing,” Poppe said.

Athletic director Jim McLaughlin, a former Union football player, said choice of logo is at each head coach’s discretion.

“When we started this, it was never our intention to get rid of the block U or the circle logo that’s on the hockey uniforms or different things like that,” McLaughlin said of the lightning logo. “It’s an additional mark we’re able to utilize… Part of the challenge, too, has been the timing of our announcement and trying to get things turned around.”

Aside from what the team is wearing, Union fifth-year senior quarterback Donovan Pacatte of Cobleskill said he noticed a dramatic change in their first training camp under Poppe, who took over for Jeff Behrman, who departed to become head coach at John Carroll.

“It’s super exciting,” Pacatte said. “This two weeks of camp has been totally different from my last four years. High energy, a lot of competition, which is very different from what we’ve had in the past. Just excited to come out to practice every day and compete with the guys. (Poppe) brings a whole new energy that I haven’t really experienced in college, so it’s exciting.”

Poppe held a team-bonding movie night at the campus theater a week ago. The players watched “Old School,” the 2003 comedy starring Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn.

“I was crying laughing,” said Pacatte, who said Poppe also encourages playing music during practice.

Fifth-year senior linebacker Spencer Goldstien of Hudson shared Pacatte’s excitement about the beginning of the Poppe era.

“He’s just fired up all the time,” Goldstien said. “He’s like running around the field, getting on everyone to be happy and appreciative of their teammates and he’s just always flying up and down every drill, up and down, up and down, yelling, screaming, just trying to make us all get behind each other more than just him being behind us.”

Behrman had success in his six seasons at Union. He took over an 0-10 team and went 42-20 with an appearance in the 2019 NCAA Division III playoffs.

But the Garnet Chargers ended on sour notes the past two years. They lost their final two games in 2021 and last three games last year, capping both seasons with losses to archrival RPI in the Dutchman Shoes game.

“We try to forget about it,” Goldstien said. “Obviously, the 6-4 (record last year) is not the way we wanted to go. But live and learn, so we’re trying to leave that in the past and focus on this season as best we can.”

Union will start the season at Hilbert, a second-year Division III program that went 0-7 last year. It will be Union’s debut under its new nickname of Garnet Chargers.

“Can’t really control that,” Goldstien said. “It’s out of our hands. That was the school’s decision, so that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

“Still rocking the block U on the helmet and don’t know what the future holds, but we’re excited to play football and represent Union College.”
— Union football coach Jon Poppe