Let’s get right to it. At first I didn’t care for the new W.F. West logo, but the scowling, startlingly whiskered bearcat has actually kind of grown on me.
Unfortunately, most other Bearcats (the people, not the critter) appear to feel anything but warm and fuzzy toward the newly unveiled pointy-haired symbol of their alma mater.
Facebook was buzzing this week with people calling foul on the stark new mascot. A member of my class of ’94 even started a Facebook group called “Save the ‘Old’ Bearcat” that quickly gained more than 2,000 followers.
In the face of widespread derision, plus loud laments for the deposed logo, the district issued a statement saying it had heard the community’s complaints. The process of revising the mascot, which has gone for two years and been driven by students, will take the comments to heart once students return to school in September.
In short, as of press time, it appears that the new logo is on hold and the electric bearcat is in hibernation.
It’s an unexpected twist in a process that began with students who wanted to update their Bearcat logo. An alumnus and longtime graphic design professional volunteered his time to help. They have had lots of time to get used to the new mascot. The rest of us found it shocking when we read about it in The Chronicle last weekend.
The logo in use until now was created in 1996 by W.F. West student Aaron Trotter, who modified a Bearcat design that was already at least a decade old.
It’s worth mentioning that Trotter was a letterman football player and wrestler with immense artistic ability. Not long after designing the logo, he died in a tragic car wreck — a life of talent cut short. Those of us who attended W.F. West in the mid-1990s will always see that logo as one of his legacies.
With that said, the “old” bearcat has remained surprisingly consistent since the first logo appears in school yearbooks in 1929. It’s always been a sort of modified puma or wildcat with saber-tooth fangs.
While that’s a natural look for us in the Pacific Northwest, it’s also nothing like an actual bearcat.
There really is such a critter. Also known as a binturong, it lives in Southeast Asia and resembles a big-boned mongoose.
Should the W.F. West mascot look like a real bearcat? People can reasonably take both sides of that argument. There’s value in biological accuracy, but there’s also something to be said for our longtime habit of associating our school with a fearsome, quasi-mythological beast inspired by the wild felines native to our region.
I personally side with the binturong camp, but one can’t easily dismiss the nearly nine decades of tradition in each cougar-style bearcat snarl.
A different question is whether this new mascot appeals to the sensibilities of Bearcat Country.
The school’s perspective is that the logo is made for, and represents, the current students of the school. In particular, the sunken red-eyed expression on the new logo — one that came across as sinister to a number of observers — was designed, we are told, to represent the threat that opposing teams should feel when they come to play against the Bearcats.
Here’s where I have to disagree with the school district’s perspective.
A school logo doesn’t just exist to convey the fierce spirit of the sports teams. It’s the emblem of the school as a whole. It’s on T-shirts and the door to the school office. It’s what you see on the school’s website.
A logo represents the hometown affection and loyalty of tens of thousands of Chehalis graduates living around the world. I think we’d all agree that the logo should look tough, but not evil.
I’ve been among the W.F. West diaspora, graduates who leave town uncertain if they’ll ever return. I was fortunate enough to be able to come back, but others must settle for connecting to their home town through whatever remote means they can.
That actually helps explain why this new logo attracted so much attention. In years past, the logo changed regularly. Students knew but no one else noticed. Now social media helps make these kinds of changes visible to people near and far. When the change is so dramatic, it’s going to get tongues wagging and fingers tapping.
I hope the students of W.F. West and the 1975 alumnus who donated his time aren’t too discouraged by the negative feedback on their creation. They swung for the fences. It’s the only way to hit a home run, but sometimes a mighty shot veers foul. The only thing you can do is ready your bat and swing again. This is a fantastic opportunity for the students to learn some tough but important lessons about a crucial life skill called damage control.
A school’s mascot lives, if it can be said to live at all, as an emblem of students past, present and future. The students and administration have learned, I think, that they’re not just creating a design for student athletes to rally behind on the field. Graduates want the new logo to represent them, too.
In a way, the strong reaction from thousands of W.F. West supporters over the logo just proves the point that the fierce new mascot was trying to make.
Don’t ever pick a fight with a Bearcat.
•••
Brian Mittge, W.F. West Class of 1994, hopes people pay as much attention to district curriculum selection, design and construction of a new Chehalis elementary school, and other academic issues as they do to a cartoon cat. What do you think? Email brianmittge@hotmail.com.
