Victor E. Huskie lives on.

NIU Athletic Director Gerald O’Dell said Monday there are no plans to get rid of the familiar school mascot, though the athletic department has unveiled a new logo.

O’Dell said “I like Victor E.” and insisted the change in logo will not affect Victor E., the mascot. However, he did say Victor E. could stand to change his coat.

“We do need a new costume,” O’Dell said. “The other one is a little worn out.”

The change that is being made pertains to the Victor E. logo, variously described as a boxing dog or an air-guitar pooch.

McMillan Associates of Sycamore designed the new Huskie logo as a donation from two NIU alumni, John Vieceli and his boss, Mike McMillan. The two approached O’Dell with the idea for a new logo last January, and the NIU AD agreed it was time for a change.

“The logo represents the values of Northern Illinois University Intercollegiate Athletics,” O’Dell said. “It is a program that is moving. It is progressive. It is a program that is strong and committed to excellence.”

Vieceli said he got the idea for creating a new logo while working for the NIU athletic department as a student two years ago.

“When I look at it, the new Huskie plays on the direction in which the athletic program is moving,” Vieceli said. “It’s coming right at you. It’s not static.

“I am pleased with the final design. It’s better than what we had in the past.”

The problem with the old logo, O’Dell said, was that there were several different ones going around, including a variation of the Victor E. logo for women’s sports and a “wolf” within a ring. O’Dell said it was important that the athletic department use one standardized version that people could identify with the program.

The phasing-in of the new logo will take about a year, the NIU AD said.

O’Dell commissioned a committee to help him decide on an acceptable new logo. One of those on the committee was NIU Sports Information Director Mike Korcek, who said he had mixed feelings about the change.

“The dog was identifiable with Northern,” Korcek said. “But it’s just a matter of transition. People have said it was kind of cartoony.

“It’s like a new car. You like the new one, but the old one served you faithfully.”

Korcek, who came to NIU in 1966 as a student, said he has tried to find out how long Victor E. has been at the school, but “no one has a year or design date on Victor E.”

Korcek said he would like to defer a final judgment on the new logo until he sees it with surrounding lettering. That job is being handled jointly by McMillan Associates and the NIU Office of Publications and Printing.

Mike Malone, the office’s director, said a version of the new logo with lettering will be finished in time for distribution to newspapers before the NIU football team’s first game Saturday.

Malone said once the lettering is completed, the Sycamore company’s responsibilities for the logo will end. NIU would then assume the task of applying the logo to its various uses, such as letterheads.

“Since McMillan Associates donated it, they don’t want a lifetime of commitment for it,” Malone said.