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Tiger
Fight Song
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You may need
to download Quicktime
to play the song.
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- Nearly a century of suspense ended Monday when
Fort Hays State University introduced its first-ever, one-of-a-kind,
"official" Tiger mascot. The new mascot was unveiled
in a brief ceremony in the Seibel Lobby of FHSU's Sternberg Museum
of Natural History.
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Throughout the history of the university there has been a wide
range of mascot images affiliated with FHSU but never one "official"
representation of the Tiger mascot. A primary mascot currently
used, especially by the Athletic Department, was taken from "clip
art." This meant that anyone who had purchased the collection
of art could clip that tiger image to use as they saw fit. This
led to the decision to change to an image that would be the exclusive
property of Fort Hays State and that would quickly become identified
as the unique FHSU image.
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Mary Ridgway, the FHSU art director, worked for a year with the
university's Integrated Marketing Committee to create the original
Tiger mascot. Ridgway said, "We found that people were not
comfortable with drastic changes. So, rather than develop a completely
new mascot the old one evolved. Response to the evolved image
was significantly more positive than to a complete redesign."
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The Integrated Marketing Committee did extensive research, including
several focus groups, to gather information that Ridgway could
use to develop a unique and appropriate Tiger mascot for Fort
Hays State. Dr. Edward H. Hammond, FHSU president, cut a ribbon
during the ceremony Monday to reveal an 8-foot-square banner containing
the new Tiger. Just before the unveiling, a sampling of the old
FHSU Tigers was displayed. Also, the FHSU cheerleaders helped
to introduce a new Tiger mascot costume for the occasion.
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The 30-minute unveiling was free of charge and open to the public.
During the unveiling, buttons displaying the new mascot were given
away. Also, winners of various "Tiger unveiling" prizes
from local radio stations were able to claim their prizes after
the ceremony.
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To make sure that the new logo would be available on products
immediately after the unveiling, the FHSU Office of University
Relations provided the new image in February to all licensed vendors
of FHSU merchandise and to some campus departments.
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The image has been trademarked and Ridgway said that it would
be registered soon. "That means we will be changing the 'TM'
to the letter "R" in a circle (®) when the mascot
is registered," she said.
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