The Cleveland State Vikings Sports Department, also known as Vikes, is owned by Cleveland State University. Most of his teams participate in the Horizon League conference, except wrestlers – they have been part of the MAC since 2019. Since 1972, Vikings have been competing in the NCAA Division I. Before this; they were enrolled in the NCAA College Division, which was later transformed into the NCAA Division II.
Meaning and History
From 1982 to 2005, the official logo of the sports department was a painted green man with Viking attributes: a horned helmet, a studded shield, and a Carolingian type sword. The anthropomorphic character embodied strength, confidence, militancy, and constant willingness to attack.
In 2006, after a major redesign, the logo changed. Now it depicts a real Viking, or rather, the upper part of his head. The helmet is multi-colored: the artists combined two shades of gray, used white for horns, and circled the picture with a wide green line.
1982 – 2005
2006 – today
The lower half of the original character’s face is covered by the inscription “Cleveland State.” It looks unusual thanks to an individual font with pointed serifs of different lengths. Words are located between two horizontal stripes that separate the text part of the logo from the graphic.