By Josh Bennett
Managing Editor
Upon the finding of the original color and mascot ballot that CSU Bakersfield distributed among students in 1970, I wondered what might have been, and what CSUB could have looked like, if they weren’t the blue and gold Roadrunners. The appearance, the signage, the blue floor in the Icardo Center and the aesthetics of CSUB is possible because of votes from attendees of CSUB back in 1970, people that may or may not still care about the school today. The original ballot appeared as follows.
Colors:
Orange and white
Green and white
Purple and white
Purple and orange
Red, white and blue
Mascot:
Roadrunners
Aardvarks
Condors
Conquistadors
Oilers
Falcons
Interestingly enough, the color scheme that won (blue/gold) was not on the original ballot. How it won it is unknown, but the colors are popular among many UC schools, such as California-Berkeley and UCLA, so that might have had an inspiration.
Additionally, I feel that all three color and white schemes would have eventually added a third supporting color to the scheme, especially the green and purple. Purple is usually paired with black, as is green, although blue and green and green and gold is also popular. Orange and white might have worked, as the University of Texas has been using it for years. However, even they have added black to the scheme. Purple and orange is a very rare scheme, Clemson University is most famous for using the colors, and personally does not look that well together in many cases.
Red, white and blue is a very popular and very overused scheme in sports and imagery alike.
So since we cannot get into a time machine and go back in time to possibly alter this ballot, let’s look at how CSUB might be represented as today with each possible ballot possibility (and if blue and gold snuck out the win just like in real life).
Roadrunners
The mascot that ended up winning the ballot. Roadrunners does not seem like an intimidating mascot, but it is not a rare mascot, as the University of Texas San Antonio shares the Roadrunners nickname. There was even a minor league hockey team called the Phoenix Roadrunners, Toronto Roadrunners and Edmonton Roadrunners. Obviously, our current slogans of “We’re All Runners” and “#AllRunners” and our hand symbol only exist because of the name. Here is our current logo with all the different color schemes on the ballot to give some perspective.
Aardvarks
Now this is a very strange name to put on the ballot. When I talked to friends about this ballot, many laughed and doubted the aardvark nickname. It’s fair criticism too, as there are no current teams or colleges in Division I that hold the aardvark nickname, so that would have given CSUB a unique factor in nicknames. For this visual, I took a page out of the University of Oregon’s book. Oregon uses Donald Duck, or a very similar representation of him, for one of their logos, so I figured CSUB could have a fun logo with one of the most famous aardvarks, Arthur! Since no orange, green, purple, red, or blue aardvarks exist in the wild, none of the color schemes would have fit in my opinion.
Condors
This nickname is now locally famous because of the Bakersfield Condors hockey team, but they might have chosen a different name if CSUB adopted the nickname back in 1970. There was an ABA team called the Pittsburgh Condors that existed from 1970-1972, but there are no Div. I colleges named after the large bird, meaning CSUB would once again have the market on the nickname in Div. I sports. I used the isolated condor head logo from the Bakersfield Condors as the example here, as I think that if CSUB were named the Condors, the logos would be similar, minus the hockey stick of course. Surprisingly, the purple and orange, and blue and gold schemes work, along with the color and white schemes, but it would need a lot of supporting colors to pull off this logo.
Conquistadors
Another somewhat unique nickname in the list is Conquistadors. The official definition of a conquistador, from dictionary.com, is “one of the Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru in the 16th century.” Bakersfield does have a large Hispanic population, 45.5 percent in the 2010 census, which would make this name a little fitting, but the population was only 10.9 percent in the 1970 census, when this decision was being made. Other than that, it seems out of place like the Aardvarks name. Once again, no Div. I college uses the nickname, and the only pro team that used it was the San Diego Conquistadors of the ABA from 1972-1975. Finding a conquistador logo was a little difficult, as many were very detailed, which means the CSUB Conquistador logo would have been as well. If this was chosen, I don’t think many, if all, of the color schemes would have fit with the name.
Oilers
Obviously a very fitting name for the area, as oil rigs fill the open land all over town. The oiler name would be a great connection to Bakersfield High School, who goes by the Drillers, which is another name for an oiler. While Oiler might have been the strongest name, and most regionally relevant name of the bunch, I don’t think any of the color schemes would have matched with the name. When I think of oil, I think of black for the color of oil, and gold, for the black gold nickname of oil. However, the most popular uses of the nickname Oilers, the former Houston Oilers of the NFL who wore light blue, red, and white, and the current Edmonton Oilers of the NHL who wears navy blue and orange, buck this trend. Other teams named Oilers include the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL, which wear navy blue and burgundy, and the former name of the Condors, the Bakersfield Oilers, who wore black and red. The nickname would have, again, been the only one in DI athletics. I used the oil derrick logo of the Houston Oilers for this representation only because if this really existed, it probably would have had a completely different showing, one I cannot fathom at this time, plus BHS uses a derrick logo as well.
Falcons
Here is the most common nickname of the list. Most famously used by the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL, and regionally by the former Fresno Falcons of the ECHL and Independence High School, it would be a more fitting name than you think. It would have tied in nicely with the eventual creation of FACT on campus. Two other D-I schools share the falcon name as well, Air Force Academy and Bowling Green University. The falcon nickname definitely gives an intense vibe in the school name, plus the word falcon just sounds great. I found a falcon head logo that looked good and seemed to mesh well with many of the color schemes.
So there you have it, there were the options that were presented in 1970 for the identity of CSUB. If I was able to go back in time and cast my vote, I would vote for the orange and white color scheme and the Oilers nickname. The reason why I would pick orange and white is because orange is a very underrepresented color in Bakersfield. Only the Bakersfield Blaze uses the color, but only in the past few years, and the closest school that uses orange is Wasco High and Delano High. CSUB using the orange color would have given them the monopoly of the color in the city, even with the eventual addition of a darker color, such as black or dark blue. It would work best with the Oiler nickname too. I listed out why it fit the best out of the other nicknames, and with an orange, white and dark color scheme. It would look very nice and be very Bakersfield.
So what would have you ended up voting for? Leave a comment below or send us a email at [email protected]
