The logo used by the Kentucky Wildcats became the subject of a subliminal sexual scandal in the late 1990s. The team had even to modify its emblem to get rid of the accusations.
Meaning and history
Kentucky Wildcats is an athletic program of the University of Kentucky, which is composed of nine men’s and ten women’s clubs, competing in such sports disciplines as Basketball, Soccer, Cross Country, Swimming & Diving, and several others.
The program is one of the founding members of the Southeastern Conference and has all of its teams playing in the First Division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Whatare Kentucky Wildcats?
Kentucky Wildcats is the name of an intercollegiate athletic program from the University of Kentucky. The program consists of 19 men’s and women’s teams, which compete in various sports disciplines as a member of the First Division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
1973 – 1988
The original ’73 logo depicts a turquoise outline of the Kentucky state. Onto its middle, they’ve put a head of a wildcat, a variety that looks like lynx. It has aggressive, malicious features about it.
1988 – 2004
The next logo has the letters ‘U’ & ‘K’ (‘University of Kentucky’) written one on top of the other in blocky serif letters. These were colored dark blue with a black outline, and the letter ‘U’ was a bit above and to the left of the ‘K’. The final touch was a drawing of an orange-fur wildcat, poised to clutch the lettering.
2005 – 2015
In many ways, it’s the same two letters as in the previous logo. However, the wildcat was gone, the letters were stretched much wider, and the color scheme also changed. The blue turned a paler shade, and the outline was replaced with a combination of white and blue on the outside.
2016 – Today
The Kentucky Wildcats are intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky. The female athletes and women’s teams of the University were called “Lady Kats” throughout much of the club’s history until in the middle of the 1990s the name “Wildcats” was adopted by the athletes of both the genders.
The nickname “Wildcats” was given to the club in 1909, after a football road victory over Illinois. The earliest truly memorable Kentucky logo appeared in 1973. The emblem, which looked really aggressive, depicted a wild cat with an open mouth. The outline of the Kentucky state was placed at the background. The only colors were blue and white.
Symbol
In comparison with the original emblem, the 1989 one looked much less realistic. The cartoonish wild cat placed behind the large letters “U” and “K” was stretching its paw with very sharp claws ahead. The club received a lot of complaints from people who said the cat’s tongue looked more phallic than tongue-like, so eventually they had to modify the emblem. Not only was the tongue altered, but the whole color scheme was changed.
Current emblem
Today, the club’s main logo is a combination of two interlacing letters, “U” and “K” (University of Kentucky). It was first used in 1997 as an alternative to the main emblem. In 2016 there was a slight shift in the color scheme as well as a modification of the shape of the letters.
Font
Both the wordmark and the Kentucky Wildcats logo consisting of two letters feature almost the same traditionally-looking serif typeface. In comparison with the wordmark, the logo features slightly broader versions of the letters “U” and “K”.
Color
The current Kentucky logo combines both the University’s official colors, Kentucky Blue and White. Kentucky Blue is a saturated shade of dark blue. Although earlier logos also played with the combination of blue and white, the shades were slightly different.
University of Kentucky basketball
Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team is the winningest program in the history of college basketball. Back in 2009, it became the first-ever Division I squad to gain two thousand victories. Also, they have competed in eight NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championships, and in this respect only one team is ahead of them, UCLA. Also, the Wildcats are the first of all NCAA schools in all-time winning percentage.
Both the men’s and women’s teams use the Joe Craft Center as their practice facility.
University of Kentucky football
The roots of the UK’s football program go to the 1890s when the team began competing with other colleges in the area.
The Wildcats play in the FBS of the NCAA and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference. Since 1973, their home arena is Kroger Field (formerly Commonwealth Stadium). Mark Stoops is the head coach.
University of Kentucky baseball
The university’s baseball program has not been very successful so far. From 1997 to 2004, they only had one winning season. However, they had a very successful season in 2006 when they won a regular-season conference title for the first time in three decades. Their best season has probably been in 2012.
In late 2018, the Wildcats started using Kentucky Proud Park as their home arena.
Kentucky Wildcats Colors
WILDCAT BLUE
PANTONE: PMS 286 C (286 U)
HEX COLOR: #0033A0;
RGB: (0, 51, 160)
CMYK: (100, 75, 0, 0)
WHITE
HEX COLOR: #FFFFFF;
RGB: (255, 255, 255)
CMYK: (0, 0, 0, 0)
BLACK
PANTONE: PMS BLACK 6 C
HEX COLOR: #000000
RGB: (0, 0, 0)
CMYK: (0, 0, 0, 100)