The Eastern Illinois Panthers are the intercollegiate athletic programs of Eastern Illinois University (EIU) in Charleston, Illinois. The university’s athletic teams compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision as members of the Ohio Valley Conference. The Panthers’ visual identity is built around a panther head mark, a nickname that dates to a campus naming contest in 1930.
Design and History
The current EIU Panther primary logo was unveiled on October 7, 2015, in the Buzzard Hall Auditorium. It replaced the previous Panther logo that had been in use since 2000. The new mark was developed by the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) of Atlanta, working with a committee of representatives from EIU administration, athletics, the campus bookstore, and the Board of Trustees student representative. The committee reviewed multiple looks and color schemes before settling on the final design. The logo made its competitive debut on EIU football helmets during the Panthers’ October 10, 2015, Family Weekend game against Southeast Missouri, televised on ESPN3. The 2015 logo was the seventh in Eastern’s history, according to the student newspaper The Daily Eastern News.[1][2][3]
EIU Director of Athletics Tom Michael said at the unveiling that the new logo was intended to give the teams “a more cohesive look,” noting that the previous identity had become “splintered with different versions of logos” and “too many different looks on our uniforms.” Vice President for University Advancement Bob Martin explained that older versions of the logo already installed on campus would be phased out gradually, as funding allowed or as facilities were naturally replaced.[1]
The Panther nickname itself dates to October 16, 1930, when the Teachers College News announced “Panthers” as the winner of a contest to name Eastern’s athletic teams. Athletic director and football coach Charles “Pop” Lantz, football captain Gene Kintz, and sports editor Irvin Singler selected the winning entry from submissions by Harland Baird, Paul Birthisel, and Thelma Brooks. Before the contest, teams were commonly described simply by the school colors, Blue and Gray.[4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The 2015 primary logo depicts a right-facing white panther head inside a shield, above a straight custom “Eastern Illinois” wordmark in blue, light blue, and gray. Alternate versions of the mark include a white panther head in a shield with “EIU” type, and a secondary shield design combining “EIU” lettering with a “Panthers” wordmark.[5][6][7]
The choice of a white panther in the 2015 mark drew campus discussion. In February 2016, the student organization Performing Arts for Effective Civic Education hosted a forum titled “Panthers Are Really Black!” prompted by the new logo. PAECE vice president Shadezja Garrett noted, “The idea came from the Eastern logo, which features a white panther. And a panther is black.” The forum used the logo as a starting point for a broader discussion about black-and-white imagery in culture.[8]
Typography and Design
The 2015 identity introduced a custom typeface for the “Eastern Illinois” and “EIU” lettering, developed alongside the new panther illustration. The official EIU athletics media relations office lists the program’s PMS colors as PMS 2945 Blue, PMS 422 Gray, and White. The Ohio Valley Conference style guide similarly specifies the Panthers’ colors as Blue 661C and Cool Gray 4C.[9][10]
In December 2015, SportsLogos.net ranked the new EIU Panther primary logo as the No. 2 Best New Primary Logo of 2015 among more than 150 qualifying new team logos across sports. The site’s annual awards recognized the mark’s debut during the 2015 calendar year.[2]
Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
