Pay Homage to the Student-Winning Block O
A Logo Designed by the People, for the People
By 1987, The Ohio State University was fine-tuning its identity. The athletics program had momentum. Fan gear was taking off. And the Block O seen across jackets, programs, and helmets needed a new expression. Something that captured movement, pride, and the energy of a new generation.
So they asked the people who knew Ohio State best: the students.
In 1987, the university launched a campus-wide design contest to create a new athletic logo. The winning design added angled motion lines to the Block O and incorporated a stylized buckeye leaf. The design didn’t erase what came before. It extended the story and set the tone for a school looking towards an approaching new decade.
A New Era of Licensed Identity
The new Block O became Ohio State’s primary athletic mark from 1987 through 1991. It launched during a period when the university’s Office of Trademark and Licensing had already been active for five years, building out the legal and creative infrastructure around what it meant to wear the brand.
While it wasn’t the first logo ever licensed, it arrived right as Ohio State was refining how those logos lived on gear. Students bought in. Fans and athletes wore it. And it landed with full momentum behind it. The design stood at the intersection of tradition and official recognition, making it part of the fabric of a new Buckeye era. An O that stood out among the rest.
The Legacy of the Holloway Era
While not always named in the history books, the new logo was conceived by student Matthew Holloway, an industrial design major who competed with the rest of his class in the contest.
This was an era in which logos didn’t change with much frequency, but Holloway’s fresh approach showed that tradition could evolve. That fans could be creators. And that a campus full of ideas could shape what Buckeye identity looked like for years to come.
“When I presented this opportunity that Ohio State could refresh this logo on a regular basis, they all kind of leaned in,” Holloway said. He was inspired to design something that felt completely new while adhering to the essential elements of the Buckeye ethos.
There were no computers yet to aid in the design process; everything was done by hand — the drawing, compiling and layering the design and photographs, getting the elements aligned just right.
“The leaf on that logo is an actual Buckeye leaf,” Holloway said. “I went out and picked 50 Buckeye leaves and took photographs of them and made high-contrast images out of them.”
Even in its official retirement, the spirit of the logo lives on. It’s the kind of design that feels like a specific moment in Ohio State’s history — fast, proud, and completely student-driven.
Aside from it being the ultimate portfolio piece and etched in Ohio State lore for eternity, there was a $1,000 prize attached to the contest. So how did Holloway spend it as a student in one of the most expensive undergraduate programs at OSU?
“Probably paid my heating bills and I might have gone out and bought a nice hamburger,” Holloway said. “I might have actually splurged and gone to Bernies [Bagels].”
Wear the Mark That Moved
Pay homage to the mark that brought Ohio State into a new era. Created on campus and worn with pride by the crowd.
