Mississippi Valley State University, located in Itta Bena, Mississippi, fields its NCAA Division I athletic teams under the Delta Devils nickname for men’s programs and Devilettes for women’s programs. The university is a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), which it joined in 1968. [1]
Design and History
On June 24, 2024, Mississippi Valley State unveiled a new athletics logo during a ceremony at Rice-Totten Stadium. The mark depicts a devil holding a pitchfork inside an inverted triangle with the words “Delta Devils” beneath it. [2]
The logo was commissioned by then-Athletic Director Hakim McClellan and designed by the MVSU Office of Communications and Marketing. Donnell Maxie, Director of Communications and Marketing, Senior Graphic Designer John McCall, and MVSU alumnus D’Artagnan Winford (Class of 2002) collaborated on the design. [3] McClellan noted that Maxie worked on registering and trademarking the marks, while McCall and Winford handled the design work. [4]
Prior to the 2024 update, the athletic program used a primary logo featuring a green and red devil holding a flame, a mark that dated to 2002. [5]
Meaning and Symbolism
The university’s official colors are forest green and white, with red also appearing in the athletic identity. [6] The 2024 logo retains the devil mascot motif, now rendered with a pitchfork, a traditional visual shorthand for the devil figure. No official documentation of additional symbolic meaning for the current mark has been published by the university.
Typography and Design
The 2024 logo places the devil figure within an inverted triangle, with the “Delta Devils” wordmark set below the graphic element. [2] The university has not published official documentation describing the typography or construction details of the new mark.
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