Oklahoma Company Overhauls NCAA Trophy

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- An Oklahoma City company has given the NCAA's championship trophies a facelift. MTM Recognition, which was selected with partner Jostens as the NCAA's new trophy supplier

Thursday, November 8th 2007, 10:04 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- An Oklahoma City company has given the NCAA's championship trophies a facelift. MTM Recognition, which was selected with partner Jostens as the NCAA's new trophy supplier in April, has kept the silhouette of the NCAA's iconic solid, rectangular wood block, but changed much of its features.

"Our job ... was to create something that was true to the integrity of the NCAA," said MTM spokeswoman Donna Lamprecht. "However, it was updated to be more here and now."

An arched center cutout has etched glass that includes the sport, the division and the year of the championship. The edges of the trophy are more smooth and rounded, too, for a more contemporary look.

The NCAA logo remains on the top of the trophy, but even that has been tweaked, being more domed than before.

The NCAA asked companies to create a new look during the bid process. It was not sure it wanted to change the design, but it wanted to see the possibilities.

Sharon Cessna, who oversees championships for the NCAA, heard traditionalists worry about diverging too far from the longtime design.

"But the more and more we got into it ...," Cessna said, "we really kept coming back to the same silhouette."

And when the NCAA saw the design from MTM a marriage of the traditional shape and the new details it signed off with only a few minor adjustments.

"You wanted to keep some of that tradition but also upgrade the look," Cessna said. "I think we hit a happy medium where we still have the silhouette of the trophy where it's recognizable but the trophy itself is very updated."

The first of the redesigned trophies will be awarded Saturday when Division II crowns a field hockey champion.