By Brittany Burke

The days of the rambunctious Victor E running around Arute Field or inside Detrick Gymnasium in an effort heighten the excitement of the CCSU crowd are over. As of Aug. 10, 2011, his smiling light blue face and white and number 99 football jersey has been replaced with an edgier unnamed mascot.

The new mascot, currently known as Mr. Blue Devil is just one area of the CCSU athletics department which has been revamped in an attempt by athletic director Paul Schlickmann to further CCSU Blue Devil pride.

“I believe this is a critical step in not only honoring our very rich athletics tradition, the history of our success over the long haul, but merely reestablishing and defining who we are and who we aspire to be,” said Schlickmann at the logo unveiling. “I truly believe we have a superior product to share with you today we’ve created a whole new look and design that we are extremely proud of.”

The newer face of the CCSU program is less animated and a better representation of what a NEC Blue Devil should be. The latest mascot is more directly correlated with the concepts that the athletics department values most about being a Blue Devil.

The unnamed symbol, while still smiling, is more pointed with a gray face, cynical smile and blue features. Instead of an inclusive football jersey he is donning a broader blue top with one of 11 new CCSU symbols, matching the gray shorts with the same logo. Unlike the simple Victor E the new Blue Devil has been paired with both a cape and gray pitchfork.

“There’s no doubt [the mascot is] different, just by virtue of the process we knew we were going to come up with something different so I think it’s fun how different people describe it, and if you’ve got 10 people in the room, 10 people will come up with a different adjective so without a doubt it’s different,” said Schlickmann in a start of term interview.

“I wanted it to be representative of our five words, or our five, six or seven words we use to describe to mean what it means to be a Blue Devil. So that’s competitiveness, that’s commitment, that’s passion, that’s pride, that’s hard work, whether people think it’s edgy, whether people think it has a little attitude, whether people think it’s tougher, I would say it probably is and I think that’s good.”

The new mascot design is part of a rebranding initiative that accompanies the creation of 11 new marks/logos. The process in designing the new look has been a year in the making, and is one of the first things Schlickmann worked on after taking over as Athletic Director.

“When I was soliciting feedback, taking surveys and talking to staff and coaches and people on campus and alums, all those people … one of the things that kept coming up was, ‘I think it’s time to take a look at our brand and our marks and our logos’ and that obviously resonated with me,” said Schlickmann.

The athletics department interviewed multiple companies before settling on Eric Rickbaugh and Rickbaugh Graphics. Rickbaugh was in charge of creating designs for the mascot and new marks that he presented the Schlickmann and his department. Once the initial designs were chosen focus groups comprised of various athletics department staff, student athletes and CCSU constituents were used for feedback.

“It was an effort of a lot of people and I think that’s important when you’re doing something like this because it’s driven by us in athletics, but you’re representing the university with something like that and that’s why I felt it was important to be inclusive in the process so a lot of people were involved, and I think it yielded a good result and I always like to say the integrity of the process determines the integrity of the result so in this case I think it,” said Schlickmann.

One of Schlickmann’s top priorities is getting the CCSU community involved, and in his latest efforts the athletics department has created a contest, which allows the student population as well as others to take part in the history of the rebranding.

Schlickmann and the rest of the athletics staff have put out a challenge to see who could come up with the best name for Mr. Blue Devil. The contest is open through the first week of school and the winner will be announced on Sept. 3 as the CCSU football team opens the 2011 season at home against the Southern Connecticut State Owls.

“[The contest is] an effort to have people feel like they are a part of [the rebranding] because that’s important and the response to the contest has been terrific. I have a whole pile of names,” said Schlickmann. “It’s been great people have responded really well and we have some really cool names so it’s going to be a tough decision I think, but it was neat and I think it was a way for us to again just as we did with the focus groups keep people excited and get them involved and feel like they are a part of it because they are. Our athletics family isn’t just people in Kaiser it’s everybody on campus and beyond that.”

If the winner of the contest is a student they win free textbooks for the year and if the winner happens to be a non student the prize stands at four football and basketball season tickets as well as a gift card to the book store.

The new look isn’t just for the athletes, it’s an attempt to heighten the pride of the Blue Devil community, beginning with the Sept. 3 football game.