The UT Martin Skyhawks are the intercollegiate athletic teams of the University of Tennessee at Martin, competing in the Ohio Valley Conference. The university’s official colors are Navy Blue (PMS 289), Orange (PMS 151) and White.[1]
Design and History
The Skyhawk name and original logo were introduced to UT Martin on April 25, 1995, replacing the previous nickname, the Pacers.[2] The original Skyhawk logo and Captain Skyhawk caricature were designed by Dye Van Mol & Lawrence, now DVL Seigenthaler, the Nashville office of the global marketing communications firm Finn Partners.[3] The logo package was updated internally in 2007.[3]
In 2019, UT Martin Chancellor Keith Carver charged a university committee to add a new mark to the athletic identity.[3] Finn Partners was chosen in a competitive bid process to lead the project, and focus groups plus an online survey receiving just under 4,000 responses were used to refine ideas.[3] The new alternate mark was unveiled in January 2020, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Skyhawk graphic identity.[3] The alternate mark was designed to supplement, not replace, the existing primary Skyhawk mark, offering a more dynamic and powerful side profile of the Skyhawk head.[3]
A second mark, described as the “attack mark,” was released later and became the secondary mark to the official Skyhawk logo.[4] Both new marks were designed by Finn Partners and were described by the university as offering a more aggressive and dimensional profile for the UT Martin Athletics logo package.[2]
Meaning and Symbolism
The Skyhawk is a mythical creature whose origin is tied to the university’s history. The name derives partly from “sky pilots,” the nickname of athletic teams at Hall-Moody Institute, the first educational institution on the site of the present university.[2] The Skyhawk was also fashioned after the Red-tailed hawks indigenous to West Tennessee and after World War II pilots who received initial flight training at the UT Junior College in the 1940s.[2] The goggles pictured on the logo are a dedication to the pilots who served during the war.[2]
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