NEW: PawSox Unveil New Logo and Name for Worcester
Monday, November 25, 2019
The new logo.
The official announcement of the team name comes a year after the club asked fans to submit team name ideas through the Polar Park website.
Along with the team name announcement, team also unveiled the logo, featuring a smiley face slugger, who will be called Smiley Ball.
The WooSox are set to take the field at Polar Park in Worcester for the start of the 2021 season.
New Store Opening
Along with announcing the team name, the team also announced the opening of a pop-up WooSox Baseball store in the Mercantile Center lobby which will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Fan gear also went on sale at the team’s new website on Monday night.
The Smiley Face Was Created in Worcester:
In 1963, State Mutual Life Assurance Company in Worcester faced a problem. The Worcester-based firm had purchased Guarantee Mutual Company of Ohio the previous year to work with Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a State Mutual subsidiary.
Low employee morale in the merged companies prompted State Mutual Vice President John Adam, Jr. to suggest a “friendship campaign.” He asked Joy Young, Assistant Director of Sales and Marketing, to develop something.
Young turned to Worcester freelance artist Harvey Ball, requesting he create a little smile to be used on buttons, desk cards and posters. Ball drew a smile but, not satisfied with the result; he added two eyes, making a smiley face. The whole drawing, he recalled later, took ten minutes. He was paid $240 for the entire campaign, and never received any further profit from his smiley face design.
Today, State Mutual is Allmerica Financial, and Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance is no longer a subsidiary of State Mutual. Now called Worcester Insurance Company, it still uses the smiley face on its promotional material.
The smiley face attained a life of its own well beyond the company’s walls. Harvey Ball’s design sparked a fad that swept the nation in the early 1970s. By 1971, smiley face was the hottest selling image in the country: an estimated fifty million smiley buttons alone had been sold, and the image appeared on countless other products as well.
Eventually, smiley’s popularity began to wane, and by the mid-1970s the fad was over. The image never entirely disappeared though, and began to make a significant comeback in the late 1980s, with the resurgence of sixties-and seventies-inspired symbols, fashions, and music. Smiley’s popularity continues today, its appeal both universal and enduring.
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