Almost twenty varsity teams play under the name of the Oregon Ducks, which belong to the Oregon State University. Probably the most popular of them are the American football team and track and field program.
The visual identity of the Oregon Ducks has always used green color as the main one. Though all three versions of the logo, created for the Oregon State University sports teams, featured different styles and compositions, they represent the smooth evolutional chain, reflecting the growth and success of all twenty teams, playing under these emblems.
The initial logo for the Oregon article was introduced in 1974 and featured a unit cartoonish design with the famous Donald Duck walking through a stylized letter “O”. The yellow and green color palette of the logo was accompanied by white accents and looked lively, vivid, and friendly, evoking a smile. The “O” was executed in a custom sans-serif in a hexagonal shape, with its body in yellow and a double green and white outline.
The redesign of 1994 made the logo stricter and more professional by removing the sick’s image and replacing it with a geometric “UO” monogram, which stood for the University of Oregon. Two overlapping letters, placed vertically with a slightly diagonal direction, were executed in a bold and straight typeface with geometric shapes and clean thick lines. The green bodies were outlines in white and yellow and looked bright yet simple and modest.
In 1999 the Oregon Ducks logo was redesigned again, and today will still see the logo, created at the end of the 1990s. The new version was even more minimalist than the previous one, as it contained only one letter, “O”, which was written in a smooth custom typeface, extended and clean. The color palette of the visual identity was also simplified to just one shade — green, which stands for growth, success, and progress.
The version of the Oregon Ducks logo, introduced in 1999, points to the professionalism and dedication, showing the Ducks as the ones concentrated on the result.
In 1999, the University made one more step towards simplicity. Now, the logo was as minimalistic as one can imagine. Nothing but a green capital “O” on the white background. Unlike in the two previous Oregon Ducks emblems, there were no more angles – the lines were perfectly smooth.
However, the teams haven’t got rid of the duck completely – he can still be seen on secondary logos. The secondary logo introduced in 2013 features a side view of Donald Duck wearing a scarf and hat. There’re several other alternative logos. The one adopted in 2011 sports the “O” with two wings on the sides, while the 2007 emblem features a duck’s webfoot. The 1999 Oregon football logo features Donald Duck with his fists clenched.
The answer to this question is unbelievably simple: because he IS Donald Duck. Back in 1947, the university’s athletic director was a friend of Walt Disney’s, who gave him the permission to use Donald Duck as part of the university’s visual identity. After Disney’s departure in 1966, the school signed a written contract with his company.
Football is among the most successful athletic programs sponsored by the University of Oregon in Eugene. The team that played its first official game in 1894 is coached by Mario Cristobal. As of 2019, the Ducks have claimed at least a share of 11 conference titles.
Since 2011, when the Pac-12 Conference was created, the team has competed in the Conference Championship Game several times.
The 2019 NCAA Tournament has been the most successful one the women’s basketball team of the University of Oregon has had since it was created. This was the year when the team competed in the Final Four, which has been their highest achievement so far (as of 2019). They can also boast 15 NCAA Tournament appearances and eight appearances in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32.
While the men’s team has already been NCAA Tournament Champions, this happened only in 1939. More recently, in 2017, they played in the NCAA Tournament Final Four, which means there may be some potential for even higher achievements.
The Ducks have made six NCAA WCWS appearances, while the number of the NCAA Tournament appearances has reached 20 (the most recent one in 2018). The overall number of Women’s College World Series appearances is eight.
The head coach is Melyssa Lombardi. The team plays home games at Jane Sanders Stadium.
The baseball program is among the university’s oldest athletic programs. Its roots date back to 1877. So far, the team has had seven NCAA Tournament appearances, the latest being in 2015. In 1954, they competed in the College World Series. The Ducks have been Conference champions on fourteen occasions.
The “Ducks” insignia scripted in green with a yellow trim was crafted by Nike in 2013. It doesn’t rely on any of the existing typefaces. Prior to it, the teams introduced several other wordmarks. For instance, the 1991 insignia (now discontinued) featured a block type, while the set of wordmarks that has been in use since 1999 is based on a clear and sharp contemporary sans-serif typeface.
The official colors of the University of Oregon are green (PMS 3435) and yellow (PMS 107). The two colors are used to create university’s visual identity, including its athletic logos.
OREGON GREEN
HEX COLOR: #154733;
RGB: (18, 71, 52)
CMYK: (87, 45, 78, 49)
PANTONE: PMS 3435 C
YELLOW
HEX COLOR: #FEE123;
RGB: (254, 225, 35)
CMYK: (2, 7, 95, 0)
PANTONE: PMS 107 C