Gauchos Alternate Logo

The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos have a long and storied history, and their logo is no exception. Since the school's founding in 1909, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos have had several alternate logos that were used for various purposes throughout their existence.

The first alternate logo was created in 1923 when students wanted to represent the school’s spirit with an image of a Spanish-style cowboy riding on horseback. This design featured a blue background with white stars framing an orange sunburst at its center. The gaucho figure wore traditional clothing including chaps, spurs, a sombrero hat, and a bandana around his neck while carrying two lassoes over his shoulder as he rode atop his horse against a backdrop of mountains and cacti – all symbolic elements that represented California's western heritage during this time period.

In 1949 another version of the original gaucho design was adopted by UCSB Athletics which featured more detailed artwork than its predecessor; it included additional shading to give depth to both figures as well as new colors like yellow for added contrast between them (the sunburst remained orange). In addition to these changes, some minor alterations were made such as adding four stars instead three above each side of the rider’s head along with replacing one lasso looped around his arm into two separate loops held across both shoulders - making him appear ready for action!

As times changed so did UCSB’s athletic identity; from 1961-1980 multiple versions featuring different colors schemes or symbols (such as tridents) appeared before finally settling back into using only one consistent version starting in 1981 until today which features our beloved mascot “Otto" wearing traditional garb while holding onto two ropes just like before but now without any other embellishments aside from small details like eyeshadow or facial hair giving us something familiar yet modernized enough where it still looks fresh even after decades later!

It is clear that through many iterations throughout history, there has always been strong support behind keeping alive what makes UC Santa Barbara unique: our proud Western roots embodied within every aspect related not only to athletics but also academics too – most notably being manifested through Otto who continues to be seen everywhere representing everything we stand for here at UCSB!