Branding Drama at NMSU?

[NM Green]

It is interesting how people want to make their imprint on a University they have few deep-rooted connections to. GMG

http://newmexico.rivals.com/forum.asp?sid=...fid=557&style=1

Sunday, July 17, 2005

NMSU May Get All-New Identity

By Toby Smith

Of the Journal

Inside a locked steamer trunk, tucked in a secured storage room on the concourse of the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, sits a head the size of a sofa.

Made chiefly of rubber and plastic, the head belongs to the mascot of New Mexico State University, a fellow named Pistol Pete.

Over the years, Pistol Pete's well-known cranium, with its menacing glare, bushy black mustache and towering 10-gallon hat, has teetered atop many students' shoulders at football and basketball games.

The head, however, may never again leave its steamer trunk. Pistol Pete is being revised.

Simultaneously, perhaps the cruelest Aggie joke of all is brewing: The term "Aggies," long the school's nickname, is also up for revision.

As are the school's colors, crimson and white.

Is nothing sacred in the shadow of A Mountain?

All these possible alterations are part of NMSU's new "branding" strategy, an effort to sharpen the school's image nationally.

The results are expected to be unveiled late next month. Needless to say, many Aggie rooters are already worried.

"I hate the thought of what they might do to Pete," says Sarah Valerio Ford, a Las Cruces resident who has been around the campus for 40 years. "They are calling this an 'extreme makeover,' but I'm afraid they're going to shape Pete into something stupid."

"I can't believe anyone would want to get rid of Pete," says Bob Andrews, a 1960 NMSU graduate and football letterman, now an insurance broker in Albuquerque. "OK, yeah, he's toting pistols. But we're talking about an emblem for sports! And sports are competitive, not something pacifist."

Poor Pistol Pete. Fifteen years ago, they took away the costumed Pete's bullets, which were blanks, after NMSU officials decided there was too much violence in the world. A year ago, the school confiscated the costumed Pete's gun, because the student then portraying him had misused it.

Meanwhile, the smaller Pete logo that seemingly appears everywhere in Aggieland still has his two pistols, though they now seem endangered.

Transforming Pete

Pistol Pete is not going to be eliminated, promises New Mexico State President Michael V. Martin. "We just want to update him."

Some members of the Aggie Nation can recall a similar surgery that 25 years ago attempted to move Pete away from a perceived provincialism. The mascot who survived looked like a clone of Chuck Norris, the martial arts luminary, and was quickly abandoned.

By most accounts, the symbol of Pistol Pete, a bowlegged gunslinger with vest, chaps and six-shooters at the ready, first appeared on the Las Cruces campus in 1970s. A decade later, however, someone said, "Hey, our Pete looks a lot like the mascot at Oklahoma State University."

In fact, he was a dead ringer.

Oklahoma State's mascot, also called Pistol Pete, has been around since 1923. He is based on a grizzled cowpoke named Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, a quick-draw artist who penned his own life story about mowing down bad guys across the Oklahoma Territory.

Eaton, who died in 1958, is immortalized in Oklahoma. Thus, OSU has not been happy sharing the same mascot with NMSU. OSU could do little about it, though, because the original Pistol Pete apparently was never copyrighted.

In the 1980s, New Mexico State came up with the costume for its Pistol Pete. After buckling a holstered gun, the student then pulled on the piece de resistance: the monstrous head.

More than 3 feet tall, weighing close to 25 pounds and fitted with a tiny fan inside to keep the wearer cool, the head was made by an El Paso stylist who used to craft costumes for Hollywood. It's been repaired at least once, to the tune of $3,000.

For more than two decades, the costumed Pistol Pete, Big Pete, has been a sideline fixture at NMSU athletic events. At the New Mexico State University bookstore, a smaller image of Pete, a Little Pete, adorns notebooks and sweatshirts, baby clothes, shot glasses, trailer hitch covers and more.

President's views

More than a few Aggies blame the recent stir over Pistol Pete on President Martin, who came to NMSU a year ago from the University of Florida. Coincidentally, Martin was at that school when the Florida football team's media guide in 2003 pictured on the cover not a gator, the school's mascot, but a crocodile.

Martin had nothing to do with that gaffe, however. What's more, he says, a marketing firm was already in place studying identity issues at New Mexico State when he came on board as president.

Even so, the school's new leader jumped in.

"Look," he says, "if you showed our Pistol Pete caricature to people outside New Mexico, 99 out of 100 of them would think of Oklahoma State University. Same with our nickname. If you asked people outside this state what they think of when you say 'Aggies,' 99 out of 100 would say 'Texas A&M.'

"We want to keep those symbols, but we want to modify them. We want everyone to know exactly who New Mexico State is."

Also on the agenda of the school-formed branding committee are NMSU's colors— crimson and white. Too many people around the country, the committee believes, align those colors with the University of Alabama.

"There isn't a color or colors that some school or other doesn't have," says Lou Henson, NMSU's legendary ex-basketball coach as well as an Aggie graduate. "To monkey with crimson, well, that would be terribly disappointing."

Martin is sure Pistol Pete's name will remain, even if it is periodically confused with other Pistol Petes, including the late basketball star Pete Maravich.

"Pete's a tradition, and I think people like the name," he says.

The president, however, feels the school's nickname ought to be tweaked, like the Utah State Aggies, who are sometimes called the "Utags."

Says Martin: "Personally, I like 'Aggie Amigos.' ''

The president is also convinced that it's time to retire the huge head part of the mascot's costume. "It's not only deteriorating, but I've seen it frighten little children."

Diane Pierce, who for several years oversaw cheerleaders at NMSU, and thus Pistol Pete, laughs at that assessment. "I don't think Pete looks scary; all mascots can seem scary. I've never seen kids run away, though I have seen kids cower a little, be a little unsure. Anything in a costume can scare a small child. My own son was scared of Barney, and my daughter used to hide from the Chuck E. Cheese mouse."

Guns put down

Herb Taylor, the school's senior associate athletic director, says the seizing of the costumed Pete's ammo was brought about by a combination of events, including the 1990 bowling alley massacre in Las Cruces and Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

"It just didn't seem like Pete should be firing a gun."

Last year, the student selected to dress up as Pete, says Taylor, was spotted on campus not yet in costume but brandishing Pete's .44-caliber pistol. NMSU police confiscated the firearm, says Taylor, and still have it.

The artist chosen to design a more contemporary Pistol Pete— for the logo and the costume— is from Artesia. He's an NMSU alum and lifelong Aggie fan. His name is being kept secret, says the athletic department's director of media relations, Sean Johnson, who heads the branding committee.

"We don't want to release the name until we cover all our legal bases," Johnson says. In other words, the committee wants to make sure the figure chosen does not look like any other mascot.

Change can be good

This isn't the first time a logo at New Mexico State has come under fire. The school yearbook for many years was named the Swastika. In the early 1980s, someone had the wisdom to rename it the Phoenix.

Leading the charge for that change was Michael Swickard, these days the host of a talk radio show in Las Cruces. Swickard, who holds two degrees from New Mexico State and loves the place, is nonetheless annoyed when tradition surrounding his alma mater steps ahead of common sense.

"NMSU clearly stole its mascot from Oklahoma State," he says. "More important, what does a Western gunfighter have to do with an agricultural college?"

Swickard slyly suggests the school's mascot ought to be Willy the Windmill and its nickname the NMSU Chile Pods. "Our cheer could be 'Howdy, Podner.' ''

Discussions about the mascot weary Michael Martin.

"There are so many more important things I have to mind here: retention rates, faculty and staff concerns, community and economic development. On the grand scheme of things, Pistol Pete is down there about Number 27. I really hope the same people who are in such angst about Pete are also in angst about our library, border issues and the future of our students."

Those students, believes Sarah Ford, will not have input on Pete's future. "The administration is making its decision about Pete during the summer, when the students are not on campus. It's my opinion the administration is going to sneak something in here."

A poll taken of NMSU students last fall during campus senatorial elections showed 536 students favoring updating Pistol Pete, 524 wanting no changes at all, and 190 students voting to completely replace him.

"With all due respect to the folks in Las Cruces, when the Lobos play, the entire state of New Mexico comes to a standstill" - Bob Carpenter, ESPN

[Got5onIt]

New Mexico State President Michael V. Martin. "We just want to update him(Mascot Pistol Pete)."

The president, however, feels the school's nickname ought to be tweaked, like the Utah State Aggies, who are sometimes called the "Utags."

Says Martin: "Personally, I like 'Aggie Amigos.' ''

Aggie Amigos?????? Wow, if I was an alum I'd be $h*tting bricks right now.

Edited July 19, 2005 by Got5onIt

[meangreendork]

If this means NMSU getting rid of that ugly, cross-toed image of their cowboy, fine by me.

[UNTFan23]

I'm glad our so-called "branding" effort didn't change everything like what the president of NMSU wants.

[letsgiveacheer]

We are beginning to see the efforts of our own branding campaign appear on campus publications and web pages.

Although this has been discussed to death, I'm still dissapointed with what has happened. A similar version of the eagle, or at least its wings, have been used by the US Air Force and The University of Phoenix. The tag line, "The Power of Ideas" sounds good, but what are the ideas that generate our power?

In the recent issue of "The North Texan" the cover page still used the old font. Inside was an explanation of the branding program. Under the tag line, "The Power of Ideas" there was a list of the same old items previously used...i.e. leading university of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, etc. What ideas are we talking about here?

This is not the first time a "tag line" make no sense. One of my favorites is that of Olive Garden..."When, you're here, you're family": I don't know about you, but when I invite my family over to dinner, I don't present them with a check at the end of the meal!

Back to NMSU, my wife attended "State" and remarked that it used to be known as Kow Kollege. What's wrong with that as a tag line?

[azaggieone]

That is one of the worst ideas I have heard in a long time...

So you would have the schools with names like the Mean Green, the Fighting Irish, Wolverines, and Trojans--- and then there are the "Aggie Amigos", the agricultural friends to all...

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According to a big time regent NMSU will always be the Aggies, period. Sorry Martin but your stupid idea has been trumped.