The worst-kept secret in Pittsburgh sports is now, officially, no longer a secret.
More than two decades since it moved on from them, Pitt will once again use blue and yellow as the color scheme for its various athletic programs, the school announced Sunday as part of a Nike-partnered reveal of the cosmetic rebranding of the university’s athletic department.
It’s the finished product of a two-year collaboration with Nike, which stemmed from a decision Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke made around that time. As she attended her first meeting with fellow ACC athletic directors shortly after she assumed her post in April 2017, Lyke, who was sitting between her counterparts at Notre Dame and Georgia Tech, noticed their nameplates were effectively identical.
The Reveal: MBB Edition#ZooEra | #H2P pic.twitter.com/toFendVIIe
— Pitt Basketball (@Pitt_MBB) April 7, 2019
From there, an idea was born and from that has come a look Lyke said is “going to stand the test of time.”
“I really thought ‘How are we going to be unique? How are we going to stand out in the ACC? How are we going to distinguish ourselves?’” she said.
Along with players from each of the school’s teams modeling their new jerseys before a crowd of hundreds of students and fans, Pitt unveiled a new panther logo that will serve as its secondary athletic mark after going several years without a logo of any kind beyond the school’s signature Pitt script. The new mark is modeled after a small fountain attached to the exterior staircase of the 42-story Cathedral of Learning, a stone panther head with water spouting out of its mouth.
Football coach Pat Narduzzi -- who has known about the new logo and colors for the better part of the past year and has shown them frequently to recruits – is a fan of the new look.
“The one thing I told her is ‘Heather, this is your legacy,’” Narduzzi said. “I’ve walked around our facility and seen some things people call ‘Dino’ and some other things that you look at and go ‘Who created this?’ This one’s going to stay forever, I believe.”
With the recent alterations, Pitt will be moving on from the navy blue and gold pairing it had been using since 1997. Lyke said that color scheme will not be featured in any capacity, even as throwback jerseys for select games.
Pitt’s new basketball and football jerseys pic.twitter.com/kjHCVKXqK2
— Craig Meyer (@CraigMeyerPG) April 7, 2019
Those colors were the product of another wholesale change in the athletic department’s presentation, when then-athletic director Steve Pederson scrapped the script logo, introduced a new panther logo and used “Pittsburgh” in place of “Pitt” when referring to the school as part of an effort to repair a languishing brand.
It’s a move the athletic department had been subtly teasing for months, if not years.
Over the past two seasons, Pitt’s teams increasingly started wearing blue-and-yellow retro jerseys, beyond even designated games. Coaches and administrators were more frequently seen in blue-and-yellow apparel. Banners and signage around Heinz Field began to feature the colors by which the Panthers were once known. Perhaps most notably, when the university showcased its newly completed $10 million Pitt Studios project last October, the dominant colors in the studio and its signage were -- you guessed it -- blue and yellow.
Sunday’s announcements are part of the most recent and perhaps final steps for the athletic department’s cosmetic makeover. In Oct. 2014, Pitt began using its script logo on its football helmets again as part of a clumsy, abrupt rollout. Three years ago, under then-athletic director Scott Barnes, the athletic department had a similar event to coincide with its permanent return to the script, complete with a fashion show displaying each program’s new script-adorned uniforms, though they kept the navy blue and gold color combination.
For Lyke, it was an understandable and perhaps even easy decision, especially given the collective sentiment of the fan base regarding the colors, but it was also another move made by an athletic director rapidly molding the department in her own image.
The Reveal: Pitt Football
— Pitt Football (@Pitt_FB) April 7, 2019
Our City. Our School. Our Colors.#H2P pic.twitter.com/XoCamwtVxH
In her 24 months at the school, Lyke has hired eight new head coaches, most notably in men’s and women’s basketball, while giving Narduzzi a seven-year contract extension in 2017 (Lyke herself was rewarded with a contract extension through 2024 four months later). Under her guidance, Pitt will be adding a new sport (women’s lacrosse) while dropping another (women’s tennis). Last year, Lyke unveiled plans for the “Victory Heights” project, which will provide new venues or practice facilities for volleyball, wrestling, track and field, baseball, softball and soccer.
Now, all of what she has worked to build will come with a singular identity.
“It’s essential and it’s critical to who we are,” Lyke said. “I think there’s a sense of pride in these colors. Kids want to wear retro for big games because it matters. If you look good, you play good. There’s something to that. I also felt it unifies our campus, it unifies our alumni base, it unifies the students and it’s what people like. Instead of every day saying ‘What are we going to wear today?’ this is the answer.”
UPDATE: While the Pitt athletic department is now all-in on the new color scheme, other staples of the university — Pitt’s academic seal, campus signage and the like — aren’t there yet.
“The University of Pittsburgh is in the discovery phase of a branding initiative which includes visual identity,” a school spokesperson said via email. “We’re gathering feedback, reviewing best practices, and ensuring the Pitt community is involved with our message platform and the University marks and colors. The University brand elements will be launched later this year.”
Brian Batko contributed. Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG.
First Published: April 7, 2019, 8:48 p.m.