Iowa professor: Herky the Hawk ought to smile more

A University of Iowa professor is asking for the Department of Athletics to allow the university’s mascot, Herky the Hawk, to display a wider array of facial expressions in university publications.

“I believe incoming students should be met with welcoming, nurturing, calm, accepting and happy messages,” Resmiye Oral, a clinical professor of pediatrics at UI, wrote recently in an email to UI athletic department officials. “And our campus community is doing a great job in that regard when it comes to words. However, Herky’s angry, to say the least, faces conveying an invitation to aggressivity and even violence are not compatible with the verbal messages that we try to convey to and instill in our students and campus community.”

The email was included in a message Oral sent Tuesday morning to other members of the UI Faculty Senate, where she is one of the representatives from the UI Carver College of Medicine.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Oral said she has been concerned for some time with the lack of emotional variety displayed in the images of the university’s long-standing mascot — specifically the Fighting Herky, the "Old School" Flying Herky and the Tigerhawk logo developed by retired Hawkeye coach Hayden Fry.

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Her intention, she said, is to bring diversity to how Herky feels, not to eliminate the ambitious, competitive, go-getter Herky.

Oral’s message to the Faculty Senate came in response to a series of posters and fliers on campus with messages welcoming new students — “On Iowa! Welcome Class of 2020! You’ll always be a Hawkeye. This is where it begins” — atop the images of Herky or the Tigerhawk.

“I would like to bring to the Faculty Senate’s attention that the attached Herky images are totally against the nonviolent, all accepting, nondiscriminatory messages we are trying to convey through campus,” Oral wrote in the email to her fellow senate members.

Oral stressed that she thinks the iconic images of Herky definitely have a place within the highly competitive nature of college athletics, but she wants other parts of the university to have some nonaggressive options for using such a beloved symbol.

"As we strive to tackle depression, suicide, violence, and behavioral challenges and help our students succeed, I plead with you to allow Herky to be like one of us, sometimes sad, sometimes happy, sometimes angry, sometimes concentrated,” she wrote.

When asked for comment, officials with the Faculty Senate officials said they have developed a committee of administration, faculty and staff working on the larger issue of ensuring that the university climate is one that is safe, inclusive and supportive of all of our community. The committee, however, is exploring a variety of issues across campus.

"At this time, the committee is not focused specifically on how Herky is depicted," said Thomas Vaughn, an associate professor of public health and president of the UI Faculty Senate.

Athletic department officials said they are looking into some concerns raised by Oral but note that the request is complicated.

"UI athletic department officials are aware of this request and are in the process of formulating a response in regard to the Herky images," Steve Roe, the department's director of communications, said via email Tuesday.

The problem is that, if the university is to maintain the value of its brand and logo, then the university needs to keep that brand and logo unchanged and recognizable for as long as possible, said Dale Arens, director of UI's trademark licensing program.

“McDonald’s doesn’t change the angle on its golden arches just because it puts out a new product,” Arens said.

Herky has been the symbol of UI and its intercollegiate athletic teams for more than 60 years. The cartoon image was created in 1948 by Richard Spencer, an instructor of journalism at UI, and the character earned its name through a statewide contest staged by the department. Over the next decade, the mascot came to life at football games with a black leather head and gold felt feathers.

After decades, the costume for the life-size Herky was changed two years ago to a fuzzy-faced, thick-browed Herky, with teeth perpetually bared into a half-smile or half-grimace — depending on the scoreboard.

Fans, not surprisingly, had mixed reactions to the change.

"The old Herky looks like he might strike fear into you; the new Herky looks like a stuffed animal, like something on a kid's bed," Ed Underberg, a UI alum and lifelong Hawkeye fan from Newton, told the Press-Citizen at the time.

The university's current stylebook for brand standards is 117 pages long. Focused primarily on the Tigerhawk logo and other symbols of the university, the book provides the specifics for allowable color variations, minimum sizes, alignment and other features.

Although the regulations primarily are focused on retail use of the images, the regulations still apply to ensure the general strength of the brand, Arens said.

The list of available Herky images in the book include several non-athletic-specific poses that match the approved costume for the mascot — including a Herky with his hands on his hips and one with a fist raised, as well as one with a thumbs up. There also are several options for specific sports.

The facial expression, however, never changes from the costume's teeth-baring scowl.

UI Hospitals and Clinics worked with the department to create its own kid-friendly mascot, Perky, back in the early 2000s. The character is identified as Herky's cousin and makes monthly visits to the UI Children's Hospital pediatrics floors.

Herky became involved in some political controversy last year when he, along with the Iowa State University mascot Cy the Cardinal, appeared at U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst's inaugural "Roast & Ride" event in Boone. Partisan complaints started to appear on social media after some of the hundreds of attendees began posting and tweeting photos of themselves with the life-size symbols of UI and ISU along with several Republican candidates for president.

Officials at both universities said the spirit squads — which oversee the use of the mascots — would reexamine their policies and practices for deciding whether to send Herky or Cy to a requested event. Neither university's online request form at the time included a question about whether the event was "partisan" in nature.

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at jcharisc@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5435. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffCharis.