For four decades, loyal members of Howard’s Bison Herd and the Buffalo Bills Mafia celebrated fandom and pride behind near-identical logos of a charging bison and a vibrant red streak running through it.
Today, only the Bills use the logo, as they claimed ownership and prompted the Bison to change theirs in 2014. John Dupree, a former Howard student and retired graphic designer, said he created the logo for his university. He believes he deserves credit as the logo’s creator.
Both teams, which were introduced to their respective logos in 1974, used them independently for 40 years before Shelley Davis, Howard’s interim athletic director, was notified that the university would have to make a change.
“Well, what happened was I presented it to the athletic director, Leo Miles, who was also an official for the NFL,” Dupree told The Hilltop. “Leo turned it down, but about a year later, I noticed that the Bills had the silhouetted style with the strike off the horn on the side to distinguish it.”
Dupree said he designed the logo, but it was first used by the Buffalo Bills of the NFL.
The NFL was ahead of the curve when it came to legally protecting logos, and while the Green Bay Packers, whose logo has been adopted and reimagined by Grambling State University, the University of Georgia and many high schools around the country, have allowed the use of the notable “G” design, the Bills have not followed suit.
“The NFL saw the future with logos and trademarks,” former Howard wrestling coach Paul Cotton told The Hilltop. “Universities did not see that future and trademark it. In most cases, they were allowed to use anything that was misappropriated.”
Cotton said in the ‘70s, the university had a sound, working relationship with the NFL and Buffalo Bills, so there was an agreement between the two parties that would allow Howard to continue to use their version of the charging Bison that sported their colors and read “Bison.”
Between then-athletic director Leo Miles’ status as a former NFL player and referee and former Bills quarterback Jack Kemp’s affiliation with Howard, the university had enough good favor to use the logo.
“The university knew that they had an agreement with the owner of the Bills. And when that owner died and the team was sold, they knew that the agreement was pretty much null and void,” Dupree said.
Cotton said after the Bills originally credited Stevens Wright for creating the logo and were shown otherwise, a good-faith settlement from then-Bills owner Ralph Wilson was reached.
“When the university proved that it was designed by Dupree, the Bills and that owner said, ‘Go ahead and use it,’” he said. “The legendary Buffalo Bills quarterback Jack Kemp, also known as Congressman Jack Kemp, was a member of Howard University’s Board of Trustees. That might have had a little bit to do with the understanding or agreement that it could be used once [Howard] proved that they had it first.”
Dupree took exception to the Bills crediting another artist for the design and said he got the design inspiration from a bus.
“It was originally my idea to have a charging Bison. I got it from the Greyhound logo on the side of a Greyhound bus and said, ‘I’ll make a charging Bison on the side,’” he said.
As so much time has passed, he is no longer able to legally claim the design and has reached a level of acceptance.
“I tend not to get carried away about the legal aspect, so I didn’t challenge any of it,” he said. “By now, the statute of limitations has passed and I didn’t do anything legally because I had so much stress of everyday life bothering me at the time. I’m not a money-hungry type to begin with, so I wasn’t worried about that part of it. But you know, I let it go as it is.”
Copy edited by Jalyn Lovelady
