10 Years Ago: Warner Bros. nixes Panther logo
50 Years Ago From the Herald and
Democrat in 1967 Richard (Dick) Lewis of Chicago, Ill., the midwestern partner of Drew Films Inc., New York City, a former native son, had his paintings on exhibit at the Siloam Springs Library Art Gallery. An opening tea, with Nesika Fortnightly club acting as hosts, initiated the newest phase of library service. There were no formal ceremonies to mark the occasion but it was hoped that many people would sign the guest register.
Lewis, son of the late Dr. and Mrs. R.W. Lewis, former Dean of Bible at John Brown University, lived in Siloam Springs as a young man. He studied at John Brown University, the University of Arkansas and Oklahoma State University, taking his degree in art from the American Academy of Art in Chicago. Further studies were pursued at Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, and Chouinards in Los Angeles, Calif.
One of his early works, a watercolor of a one-time Siloam Springs landmark, Frank Hessler’s Blacksmith Shop, was much desired for the local exhibition but Lewis said it was hanging on a wall in Rockefeller Center in New York City. The watercolors on exhibition here were drawn from a collection assembled during a six weeks painting jaunt through the British Isles, France, Italy and Switzerland.
30 Years Ago From the Herald-Democrat
in 1987
Scott Vachon of Siloam Springs was picked up by the Little Rock Wings 13 & Under AAU basketball team. Vachon would play for the Wings at the National AAU Tournament to be held in Syracuse, N.Y., in August.
Vachon, who would be an 8th-grader at Siloam Springs Junior High the next year, starred for the Northwest Arkansas Blues AAU basketball team. The Blues finished 5th at the State AAU Tournament which was won by the Wings, one of the top AAU teams in the country.
The team that won the State Tournament advanced to the National Tournament and was allowed to pick up two additional players and add them to their roster. Wings coach Henry Forrest was impressed by Vachon’s play at the Arkansas State Tournament and chose Vachon as one of the two players to add to the Wings roster.
10 Years Ago From the Herald-Leader in 2007 Approximately three years earlier, a new logo was unveiled for the Siloam Springs Panthers. The logo resembled an elongated diamond with a large ‘S’ in the middle.
Although the symmetry and color of the logo was changed from its original form, Warner Bros. informed Siloam Springs High School principal Charlie Abernathy by fax that the logo too closely resembled the Superman logo, owned by Warner Bros.
According to Siloam Springs athletic director Kerwin Dees, the fax was politely worded but stated that it had come to Warner Bros. attention that the school was using an S and shield similar to the Superman logo. Dees said the fax went on to state that although Warner Bros. appreciated the school’s desire to use the logo, it wasn’t allowable.
Abernathy called Warner Bros. to see if any arrangements could be made.
“We have the logo on most of our uniforms, on our football helmets and on our school website,” Dees said. Abernathy had a very nice conversation with the people at Warner Bros., and they said they would give us time to rotate out our uniforms, but that we had to remove the logo from our website and any decals we could remove.”
He said Warner Bros. indicated if the school could come up with another version of the logo, it could be submitted and they would consider it.
Some of the kids and some other people began working on other logos and working on ways to revise the current logo to conform with Warner Bros.’ specification.