Western Kentucky University’s athletic teams, the Hilltoppers and Lady Toppers, compete under a visual identity built around one of college sports’ most distinctive symbols: the Red Towel. The mark depicts a hand waving a red towel bearing the letters “WKU,” a design that has served as the program’s primary athletics logo since 1971.
Design and History
The Red Towel logo traces its origin to legendary WKU basketball coach E.A. Diddle, who clutched, chewed on, threw and waved a red towel through 1,062 Hilltopper basketball games during his career.[1] The concept for turning that tradition into an official athletics logo came in 1971 from John Oldham, a former Hilltopper All-America athlete, head coach and athletics director.[2]
Oldham made a crude sketch of the logo in a memo to Dr. Chuck Crume, a long-time faculty member in the Department of Physical Education and Recreation and a well-known wildlife artist, asking for “a drawing that looks like Coach (E.A.) Diddle waving a red towel.” Crume rendered the original artwork, dated May 10, 1971, and replied, “John, this is our idea of what a ‘Hilltopper’ looks like.”[2] Crume later edited the stylized version in the 1970s, and Director of Publications Tom Meacham revised the version now used as the “retro logo” in the late 1980s.[2]
In 2001, WKU made its first significant change to the athletics logos in 30 years, unveiling a new “family” of marks designed by Rickabaugh Graphics of Gahanna, Ohio.[3] The project, a cooperative effort between WKU athletics and The Collegiate Licensing Company, involved 18 months of research with students, administrators, coaches, student-athletes, retailers, season-ticket holders and board members.[3] The primary athletics logo remained the red towel with the letters “WKU,” though the new towel was more curved with letters in a modified typeface.[3] The 2001 update also added gray and black as secondary colors to the long-standing red and white scheme, with gray having been part of the palette until the mid-1950s.[3]
In July 2016, WKU athletics launched new Hilltopper, Lady Topper and WKU wordmarks alongside an updated WKUSports.com. The new wordmarks were described in an athletic department release as replacing existing wordmarks with “a sleeker, more refined look,” while the red towel remained WKU’s primary athletic mark.[4] The red towel primary logo remains in use today, including at midfield of the football field at Houchens-Smith Stadium.[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
The Red Towel logo directly references the coaching career of E.A. Diddle, whose red towel became synonymous with his success and with WKU’s athletic heritage.[1] The Hilltopper nickname itself derives from the massive 232-foot hill on which the WKU campus sits, a name that dates to the 1926-27 basketball season when jerseys first exhibited the Hilltopper namesake.[6] All men’s sports use the Hilltopper name, while women’s sports use Lady Toppers.[6]
WKU’s official colors are red and white.[7] When a fan questioned the appearance of black in athletic uniforms in 2000, then-athletics director Dr. Wood Selig responded, “Our colors are still red and white, some teams use gray or black as a highlight.”[7]
Typography and Design
The 2001 redesign by Rickabaugh Graphics built the athletic identity on two long-standing WKU images: the Red Towel and Big Red, the mascot that has been part of WKU athletics since 1979.[3] According to Eric Rickabaugh, president of Rickabaugh Graphics, the two images were “given a slightly updated touch to improve reproduction and matched with a new complementary logotype design.”[3] The 2001 family of marks also included a red towel wrapped around an outline of the state of Kentucky with a starburst signifying WKU’s geographic location, plus various type styles including a stacked version of the words “Western Kentucky” and an upper-case block letter “W.”[3]
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