The King Tornado are the athletic teams that represent King University, a private Presbyterian-affiliated institution in Bristol, Tennessee. The university’s athletics department uses a visual identity built around the Tornado nickname, a name that dates back to 1922 and a lopsided football victory.
Design and History
The Tornado nickname was adopted in 1922 following a 206-0 football win over Lenoir College (now Lenoir-Rhyne University). The Bristol Herald Courier headline on October 22, 1922 read “King College’s Victory Was ‘Tornado’ Of Week’s Games” and began referring to the football team as the “Tornado.”[1]
The institution was known as King College until 2013, when it changed its name to King University. That year, the basketball floor at the Student Center Complex was repainted with the new logo and Conference Carolinas logos on each of the free throw lines.[2]
In September 2023, King University unveiled a new university-wide logo featuring the illuminated tower on the campus Oval and the shape of the brick arches that are a signature of the Bristol campus. The university explicitly stated that the athletics department Tornado logos and the university seal would remain the same.[3]
Two primary athletics marks are documented in U.S. trademark records filed by King University. The first, filed October 13, 2015, consists of a representation of a tornado behind and slightly to the right of a capital letter “K.”[4] The second mark consists of a tornado to the right of the wording “KING.”[5] Both marks were registered in 2016, with first use in commerce documented as November 27, 2012.[6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The tornado imagery in the athletics marks directly references the Tornado nickname adopted in 1922. The official athletics site describes the origin of the name as stemming from the newspaper headline that called King’s 206-0 victory a “Tornado” of the week’s games.[1]
The university’s official school colors are blue and scarlet, as listed on the athletics department’s Quick Facts page.[7] The mascot, Twister the Lion, wears these colors of navy blue and scarlet red.[8]
Typography and Design
The trademark records describe the two primary athletics marks in simple terms: one combines a tornado with a capital letter “K,” and the other places a tornado to the right of the word “KING.”[4][5] No designer or agency attribution for the athletics marks is publicly documented in the available sources.
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