The Old Dominion football program announced this week it will wear the university’s vintage “racetrack” logo on its helmets during its Sept. 23 Homecoming game against Texas A&M-Commerce.
The geometric logo was created in 1973 by Robert McCullough, who was chairman of the university’s art department, and was a focal part of the Monarchs’ brand until 1986, when they replaced it with a regal lion wearing a crown.
This move was unpopular with students and faculty due to the similarity to the logo used by Food Lion, a regional supermarket chain in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, though it remained the university’s official logo until 2002.
Of course, Old Dominion didn’t have a football program from 1941-2008, so this will mark the first time the logo appears on the Monarchs’ helmet. They’ll wear it with their Hudson blue uniforms, including the Hudson blue helmet that was introduced last season.