Beijing News reporter Guo Yanbing photo
In the CBA (Chinese men’s basketball professional league) where the beast is rampant, why is the mascot of Shou-gang men’s basketball team a cute duck? This is because it is in line with the team logo image of the team. The 1995-1996 season is the first year of CBA. Shougang men’s basketball is one of the founding teams. After 28 years of development, the team logo and mascot representing the club’s image are also very well known.
As the “13th person” who accompanied the team for the longest time, Shougang’s mascot Thunderbolt duck has undergone many transformations and upgrades, but the main image of the duck has never changed. As the head coach of Shougang men’s basketball in the first year of CBA, Yuan Chao later served as the management and still worked in the club. He described in detail the whole process of the birth and development of Thunderbolt duck.
Origin
The club first chose Eagle
In 1995, the CBA league was established. The Chinese Basketball Association requires each team to report team logo of the design plan. Shougang initially chose Eagle men’s basketball. According to Yuan Chao, the prototype of Eagle is the sculpture at the east gate of Shougang’s old factory. “We have done a lot of drafts, including decomposition, different angles and color matching, which is quite professional.”
However, the images of northeast tigers in Jilin, squirrels in Zhejiang and hunters in Liaoning were all approved, and the proposal submitted by Shougang men’s basketball was not listed in it.
At that time, IMG (International Management Group), the successor of the league, invited American designers to customize team logo for each CBA team. In response to the men’s basketball design of Shougang team logo, the designer proposed a duck-like image because he had read a report by AFP. The general content is that China has also begun to develop professional sports, and will soon have professional basketball leagues, including main and away games, cheerleading performances and 48-minute games, which have not adopted the rules of the International Basketball Federation, but similar to NBA. The designer was impressed by a sentence in the article: “One day, we can see Beijing duck vs Chicago Bull.”
“This designer insists on using Ducks as the image of team logo, which he thinks is easy to be remembered by the outside world.” Yuan Chao recalled. At that time, the leader of the Chinese Basketball Association took the lead, and the designer also had dinner with Ma Jiaying, then executive vice general manager of Shougang men’s basketball and head coach Yuan Chao. “Americans repeatedly persuade that the most important thing team logo is not a symbol, but to let people accept and remember.” Yuan Chao recalled that Shougang club finally approved by the superior leadership and agreed to use Ducks as the team team logo image.
Guess
The idea may come from Beijing roast duck
Why did the above designers insist on choosing the image of duck, and why did AFP use the saying of “Beijing duck? “We guess it is probably related to Beijing roast duck.” Yuan Chao smiled, after all, this gourmet has a high status in the minds of foreigners.
In the 1995-1996 season, the CBA Professional League opened, and Shou-gang men’s basketball team and the mascot appeared one after another team logo. As the team gathers popularity among Beijing fans, its influence is also expanding. After the end of the first season, the team received an invitation from Quanjude.
Yuan Chao clearly remembered that when the whole team got off the plane, they went straight to Quanjude Hotel at Heping Gate. “Quanjude felt that our team logo had something to do with them, so we talked about the whole process.” After a meal, both sides think this is fate. Shougang once had the stress of not eating roast duck during the season, and many foreign aid knew it.
Polishing
Designer’s first draft looks like Donald Duck
After the plan of using duck image was passed, the first draft taken out by the designer was very similar to Donald Duck’s image. Shougang believes that this version looks too mild to reflect the team’s combat effectiveness. The design of the second draft went to another extreme, “that version of duck became a ‘monster’, looking fierce, and both sides felt bad.” Yuan Chao remembered, but this draft had a lightning element, which was later translated into “Thunderbolt” and became the origin of the name of the mascot Thunderbolt duck. The lightning split from the body was retained. By the third draft, the image of the duck was very close to the official team logo.
Before it was formally finalized, the problem of color matching and shirt color dependence was solved. The oldest image of Thunderbolt duck in CBA was finally born: the image of duck with extremely high recognition degree and the shape of flame on its head; the previous lightning became two channels, presented in the form of two wings.
CBA teams have changed several times, and the team logo of many teams have also been iterated. Shougang’s men’s basketball Image of Thunderbolt duck has become one of the rare team logo that have been used all the time.
Entity
Thunder duck into CBA landscape
In the 1995-1996 season, after Shougang team logo was officially released, the club began to make entity mascots, from image design to style board, including headgear, clothing and shoes. In Yuan Chao’s impression, at that time, due to immature skills, several manufacturers were found to complete the production. “I heard that the first sample came out in the same style as the current Thunderbolt duck, full of muscles, but that version is like bodybuilding, the club market Department will give no.” Finally, the first generation mascot who officially met the fans at home was far from it: The Hood was mainly black, and the clothes on the body were very loose. It was hard to imagine that it used to be a big one.
Since the 2003-2004 season, Shougang mascot began to upgrade its image, with one white, one yellow, one male and one female appearing, and the creativity came from the club market department. During the period when Yuan Chao led the team, he didn’t pay too much attention to the mascot’s every move, but he remembered that the atmosphere at home was always very good, “from Shijingshan Stadium, moving to Workers’ Stadium, and then to Shougang Basketball Center, many fans have followed along. At that time, the active atmosphere mainly depended on cheerleaders and mascots.”
“At that time, the fans also had a look, tuyile. Now the Thunder duck has become an indispensable existence on the scene, and from this point of view, it is very successful.” In Yuan Chao’s view, the image of Thunderbolt duck has a natural advantage over Raptors and beasts in terms of integrating into fans. “It is really easier to accept and can interact with fans. Whether it is Shougang’s home court or All-Star weekend, the mascots of each team have arrived at the scene. Thunderbolt duck is really popular and very popular with children. It can be said to be a beautiful scenery of CBA.”
Impact
Professionalism cannot be separated from Mascot
Yuan Chao sighed with emotion. At that time, he used Ducks as the image of Shougang team logo and mascot, which was hard for many people to accept. However, looking back now, his vision is still unique. “Designers are considering from the perspective of marketization and audience. At that time, from the perspective of the team, we felt that the eagle was in line with this brave image, and other teams were also dragon, lion, tiger and leopard.” Yuan Chao noticed that in the NBA game, the mascots of many teams are lovely animal images, which is indeed more conducive to the promotion of team culture.
The image of Thunderbolt duck can become the representative of Shougang men’s basketball, and naturally it cannot be separated from the club’s all-time promotion. “Thunderbolt duck can have the current popularity, which cannot be separated from the efforts of the club and the creation of this image. This is the embodiment of our desire to give back the support of the fans and create the home characteristics.” Yuan Chao said.
Competitive sports speak with achievements, but professional sports do not only win or lose. In the eyes of Yuan Chao and Shougang people, Thunderbolt duck is the window for the professional construction of the club. “The scene of professional sports should let the audience not only appreciate the competition, but also experience more fun, this is the direction we have been working.”
(Text/Beijing News reporter Liu Chen)