Wheeling University, located in Wheeling, West Virginia, fields its intercollegiate athletic teams as the Wheeling Cardinals. The university’s athletics program competes in NCAA Division II as a member of the Mountain East Conference (MEC), a league it helped found in 2013 after the dissolution of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC), where the Cardinals had competed since 1957.[1] The athletic nickname is the Cardinals, and the mascot is Iggy the Cardinal.[2]
Design and History
The Cardinals’ official athletics colors are listed as red and white on the university’s athletics website.[3] Historical references also identify the school’s colors as red, gold, and black.[2] The athletics logo has historically featured a cardinal bird motif, consistent with the team nickname and mascot.
In July 2019, the institution’s Board of Trustees voted to change the school’s name from Wheeling Jesuit University to Wheeling University, effective immediately.[4] The name change followed the university’s decision to end its affiliation with the Jesuit order while maintaining its Roman Catholic identity.[5] The change was the fourth name the institution had held since its founding in 1954.[6]
Following the 2019 renaming, the university retained its Cardinals athletic identity and continued using the wucardinals.com domain for its athletics website.[7] The athletics department lists the nickname as Cardinals and the colors as red and white on its official quick facts page.[3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The cardinal bird serves as the athletic mascot and visual symbol for Wheeling University’s teams, with the mascot named Iggy the Cardinal.[2] The choice of the cardinal as the athletic identity connects the university to the regional bird species common in West Virginia.
Typography and Design
The designer of the current logo has not been publicly documented, and no official brand guidelines describing the logo’s typography or design specifications have been located.
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