Niagara College says good night to old Knights logo
Fourth logo in athletic department’s history will be featured on college-brewed beer
They’ve been the Knights for all of their days, but Niagara College’s varsity teams haven’t always had the same logo.
Since the alliterative nickname was coined in the late 1960s, there have been four incarnations of a logo that pays homage to the qualities of courage, excellence and honour.
No. 4 was unveiled Wednesday ahead of the 2019-2020 Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA).
“The new Knights logo captures our competitive fire and pride representing Niagara College,” said associate athletics and recreation director Michele O’Keefe.
The logo, showing a helmeted knight head-on, replaces one showing a knight in profile wielding a sword in its right hand that has been used since 2011.
Unlike the double blue previous logo, the new logo adds black as a highlight colour.
The last logo to feature a third colour was one in use from 1997 until 2011 that included yellow in the design.
Uniforms will remain unchanged for the new season. There are no plans to add black to home and away uniforms.
Peter Rylander, a charter member of the Niagara Knights Hall of Fame, began his career at the college in September 1969 as athletic assistant before being promoted to co-ordinator athletics.
He named a hockey team that was put together Blue Knights, and the rest is history.
Ironically, so is varsity hockey at the region’s community college.
Rising costs were cited when the program disbanded in the 1990s after winning five International Collegiate Hockey League championships.
Knights branded wear is available from the campus bookstore, as well as at selected home games.
Knights beer made by the Niagara College Teaching Brewery, and available at NC Brewery, The Core and The Armoury, also will feature the new logo on cans of English Pale Ale and Pilsner.
“The rebrand has given us a tremendous opportunity to continue our work with traditional and non-traditional partners on campus,” O’Keefe said. “To have a Knights beer that celebrates our athletes is a tremendous honour.”
She added offering Knights merchandise at the bookstore and pop-ups at home games fills a pent-up demand.
“This truly has been a collaboration that spans the whole college, and for that, we are grateful.”
The 2019-20 regular season for varsity sports gets underway Friday, Sept. 6, when Niagara hosts the Humber Hawks in soccer at Youngs Sportsplex in Welland. Action kicks off 6 p.m. with the women’s game followed by the man’s game two hours later.
A full varsity schedule is available online at goknights.ca.
Niagara is one of two members of the OCAA whose varsity teams are nicknamed Knights, but the only one competing in West Region.
Fleming College in Peterborough competes in the East Division.