The quality of Kentucky's legendary wildcat logo (you know the one) is spoken to by just how prevalent it is more than two decades after being dethroned as the school's primary insignia. Cats fans didn't move on when the modern stacked letters replaced it back in 2005 and, to this day, continue to rock what is technically throwback merch brandishing the look.
Now, as Kentucky Basketball continues to try and climb back into the "greatest tradition" status that has slowly crept out of relevance in recent years, I believe it's time for a return to the look that made the Wildcats so great in the first place. Bring back the old to refresh the new.
And I'm not just talking in a one-time, every now and again way. No, I want that Wildcat on the center of the floor at Rupp Arena. Give me the icicle jerseys of the 1990's, if you have to and, by all means, do away with whatever is left of the checkerboard era.
I know the football uniforms are still using that, and I don't care that the complaint at hand isn't about football - get rid of the chess board!
Returning to Old (Winning) Ways
This actually feels like a semi-promising endeavor, given Mark Pope's consistent nods to the past during his in-progress tenure in Lexington. The denim jerseys last season were the peak of those nods; Pope's squad rolled out a full media event and a ton of promo leading up to the jean-themed debut at Rupp Arena.
It would take a whole lot more momentum to outright reinstate a primary logo - especially when a new Wildcat logo was technically already introduced, even if it has since been rarely implemented - but it feels like the sort of no-brainer move that the BBN would be completely behind.
And while I'm not superstitious (I may be a little "stitious") about jerseys relating to wins, there's a point to be made here about returning to former greatness in an era of college athletics increasingly defined by brand deals and finances.
The Importance of Tradition in the NIL Era
Mark Pope himself recognized the ever-special relevance of Kentucky's sacred cloth to the right recruit even now; this is a pitch that still has merit, so why not ground that pitch in the specific part of Kentucky's hoop history that just about everyone is familiar with?
Both Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith won a national championship with the Wildcat in primary use. Of course, one chip has been one since then (and many more prior to that stretch), but we're going on a decade and a half without a trophy.
Maybe I'm just hanging on to a long-gone past, but I think I personally would feel a little better about the greatest tradition in all of college basketball returning to its aesthetic roots. If I'm acting like a past-obsessed hermit, BBN, please let me know.
But until then, I'll keep vouching for the return of college basketball's coolest logo.
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