Lee said just about everything that needed saying about the logo, the colors and the football unis.

I’m not unhappy. I think the script coming back was a pipe dream. This is not terribly dissimilar to what used to be on the basketball uniforms. (I really have to make time to put that little project together)

Paul Zeise at the P-G had a quick story (hat tip to Chris for the e-mail).

Pitt athletic director Jeff Long, who was hired in May 2003, said he began thinking about changing the logo back shortly after he arrived.

“Even when de-emphasized, the Pitt moniker never left the consciousness of our fans,” Long said. “The stimulus for this change actually came from the very first press conference when I was introduced as the director of athletics. The first question was “are we Pitt, or are we Pittsburgh” and my reaction was “we’re both.” I didn’t realize at that time that the athletic department had pretty much banished the Pitt logo from our athletic gear.

“But as I looked around the university, the university had not abandoned the Pitt logo and it was synonymous with the University of Pittsburgh. The other thing that I found was that our Pitt alumni and fans had never put aside the Pitt logo. They proudly refer to themselves as Pitt alumni and Pitt fans.”

And that’s just it. We are Pitt. That rationale from Pedersen about it being used derogatorily at the time was never bought. So what. We never cared. It wasn’t deroatory to us. Those who would try to use it that way, were about as original as the jokes about sheep and Hoopies (but not as funny).

Final thing. If any of our readers are going to the Pete tonight for the fan thing. Shoot me an e-mail report, and I’ll put it up as a post. I’m curious about the student reaction to the new logo, how Wanny does and just the general atmosphere.