Thursday, April 12, 2007

Where is Cal Poly located again?

The Cal Poly softball team can’t catch a break.
Only 17 teams in Division I softball have a better record than the Mustangs, but Cal Poly (30-9, 6-0) is still knocking on the door of the top 25.
The Mustangs just missed the top 25 this week, landing in the 26th spot of this week’s ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25.
Not that the Cal Poly faithful were complaining. Mustang die-hards are always happy when a Cal Poly team scores some national recognition, that is until they take a closer look at this week’s poll and realize ESPN.com labeled Cal Poly as Cal Poly Pomona.
Oops.
Not only is Pomona a Division II school, the Cal Poly-Pomona Broncos (close enough to a Mustang I guess -- just check their logo above) don’t even field a softball team in the spring.
ESPN.com has since corrected the error.
The miscue brings up an interesting question. Does Cal Poly, this being the San Luis Obispo campus, which I’ve seen referred to as Cal Poly-SLO, Cal State Poly, Cal Polytechnic State and California-San Luis Obispo in recent years, still have a branding issue on its hands?
It sure appears that way.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brian, you are absolutely right! Cal Poly has a serious branding issue, going back to my time there in the '80's! They can't seem to reach consensus with the campus community with all the different school logos and names on shirts, banners, etc. It would seem to me that there needs to be agreement on licensing of the name 'Cal Poly' as the standard for reference in all things referred to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Administration...WAKE UP! This is more important to Cal Poly's financial livelihood than you may think!

Anonymous said...

Maybe Cal Poly should go back to Cal Poly-SLO?

Anonymous said...

I remember watching Keyshawn Johnson on a MNF game a few years ago where he referred to his school as the "real USC". In reference to the fact that some University of South Carolina players had started calling their school "USC" maybe Poly athletes should start saying we are from the "Real Cal Poly" because . . .cmon Pomona isn't Cal Poly.

Anonymous said...

Identity is a problem with many CSUs. Back when I was the Basketball SID at Cal State Northridge (in the Ernie Wheeler days), we were referred to as Northridge State, Cal-Northridge and CS Northridge within one three-game trip to Utah. We always had a problem with the San Francisco Chronicle with Northridge State. And the T-T used to do that crap to us in the early and mid 1980s.

Even as a former CPSUSLO SID, I'm disappointed to see that that problem still exists in the 21st Century to a good university with a Div. I program.

Anonymous said...

Follow the origin: California Polytechnic School. When I was growing up in San Luis in the 1950s, it was officially California State Polytechnic College. The Pomona campus was referred to in the back of the El Rodeo yearbooks (yes, they had a section in the back) as:

"Voorhis Unit of the California Polytechnic College is located at San Dimas." (1942 El Rodeo)

Their "Poly Royal" was called "Poly Vue".

In the 1941 El Rodeo yearbook, the back section mentioned the Voorhis newspaper "Bronc's Cheer". "The second year of the Bronc's Cheer ened with the last of three editors. Due to the necessary outside work, the first two, Jack Heffend and Ross Wagner, were compelled to leave school..."

This was "the first time that we know of since the Voorhis Unit became part of the California Polytechnic College, El Rodeo contains advertisements of business concerns located near our southern branch."

Like the University of California (at Berkeley), their second campus was referred to as the University of California Southern Branch...later UCLA.

Send this to the LA Times and educate them.

Anonymous said...

why should we send that to the LA times? to educate them?

i read that incoherent rambling about voorhis and san dimas, and it only made me dumber.