Popularity of UH logo sparks concerns

By Fred Guzman

MauiNow.com

Imitation, we are told, is the most sincere form of flattery. If that’s the case, the University of Hawaii has plenty to be flattered about.

It turns out that UH’s distinctive green, silver and black kapa “H” logo has become popular with several prep teams around the country. The problem is that those schools are using the logo without authorization.

Most notable among them is Hightower High School, a Texas football power based near Houston. The Hightower Hurricanes’ school colors are green, silver and black, so the UH logo worked perfectly.

The issue came tlo light, according to the Honolulu Advertiser, when a UH fan on the mainland e-mailed photos of the Hurricanes’ uniforms to the university noting the striking resemblance.

But Hightower is not alone. Hillcrest High in Utah and Hoxie High in Arkansas also have adopted the UH logo without permission or providing UH with any sort of remuneration for its use.

The kapa “H” has been the university’s sports logo for more than a decade and has been formally registered as trademark, which means using the “H” must be approved by the school’s licensing office.

My hopes is UH works out some sort of an agreement by which the respective high schools recognize the university’s legal ownership of the logo and pay UH a nominal licensing fee.

The key word here is “nominal.” After all, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, isn’t it?

UH ROUNDUP: While the University of Hawaii’s softball and baseball teams were preparing for games on the mainland, the men’s basketball team continued to make news during its off-season.

The Rainbow Wahine is facing UC Davis in the opening round game of in the Stanford Regional. Friday’s game will start at noon, Hawaii time, and UH would appear to be a clear favorite over a team that compiled an unimpressive 26-27 overall record. By comparison, Hawaii is 44-13, is ranked No. 21 nationally and has set an NCAA D-I record this season with 141 homers. Host Stanford and Texas Tech round out the regional cast in the 64- team tournament field.

The baseball Bows, meantime, open a key four-game WAC regular-season-ending series at San Jose State on Friday. UH is 26-24 overall following a 5-1 non-conference loss at Stanford earlier this week.

Then, there’s basketball team, which shed itself of yet another holdover from the squad that went 10-20 last season. The latest to be nudged out by new head coach Gib Arnold was enigmatic guard Dwayne Williams, who actually appeared in only 13 games in his only season at UH, missing the remaining games because of injuries, suspensions and a leave of absence.