Redhawks get rowdy with new jerseys

Mark Hogan may have been the happiest coach on campus when Southeast Missouri State completed its nickname switch last January from Indians to Redhawks.

This year, Hogan's Southeast baseball team is sporting new uniforms with the Redhawks logo and wordmark.

"It's been wonderful for us," Hogan said. "There are so many more possibilities. From an athletic standpoint, to be able use the mascot and the wordmark is wonderful.

"It's hard to get Southeast Missouri State on a jersey. It looks good on a sweat shirt but not on a baseball uniform."

Southeast's new uniforms this season feature both a red jersey and a white jersey with the word "Redhawks" across the chest. A black jersey has the Redhawks head logo on the right chest.

Hogan said the shirts are recycled from last year's uniforms. "We're not the Yankees," he said.

Last year, Southeast's red jersey had the school's diamond "SE" logo with the spear on the right chest above the word Missouri. A black jersey also had the diamond logo, which the university actually replaced in recent years for an "SE" logo with the word Southeast. That change came as university placed less emphasis on the Indians nickname and imagery it no longer used.

"For the first 10 years I was here, that was it," Hogan said of the diamond logo. "That was a good baseball logo. With the [old nickname], we had to be extra imaginative.

"This is much easier."

One of the imaginative methods last year was a jersey with another reference the school no longer embraces -- "SEMO" -- but that landed Hogan in a little bit of hot water.

"I would like to be able to use SEMO along with the Redhawks," Hogan said. "Anywhere you go, we're known as SEMO."

Southeast this year does not have a uniform with the school's name -- a baseball tradition for road jerseys.

The team will wear the white at home on Saturdays and wear the red or black jerseys on the road.

"It really comes down to calling the other school and asking, 'What are your wearing?'"

The Redhawks wore red in Sunday's home game with one of their new hats -- a white skull with the Redhawks logo and a red bill.

Southeast also is introducing this year a pinwheel hat with three different colors -- white, black and red -- on the skull.

"We were down at Tulane last year and they wore the pinwheel," Hogan said. "I'm old enough to remember them from the Expos and I thought, 'Dang, we've got good colors for those.' It's definitely going to stick in our program."

He said players and the coaching staff had input on the uniforms, a process that includes looking at what other teams wear.

Hogan said the uniforms from Rawlings cost about $130 per uniform, while the hats are from a company called The Game.

"We signed a contract two years ago with The Game," Hogan said, "and they made us a great deal that allows us to experiment with different hats."