FORT SMITH (KFSM) -- Monday night (Nov. 2) the Southside High School mascot committee chose a logo to go with the new mascot, the Mavericks.
On Tuesday (Nov.3), a man in California called the school saying he owned the rights to that logo.
Mark Verlander owns Verlander Designs, and created the design that was originally intended for the Dallas Desperados AFL team.
“All of the sudden I started getting a bunch of emails from people saying someone stole your logo or something like that,” Verlander said.
A Southside alum submitted a similar version with some minor changes, and it was chosen as the new logo.
Southside principal Wayne Haver said then school never intended to use the exact image.
“Actually, the motion was that we would do something similar to the one that appeared in the paper, and we’re working on getting that done,” Haver said.
They’re working on it with Verlander.
“It was our intention to give them what artwork they need and give them whatever permissions they need to have,” Verlander said.
Verlander is giving Southside the full rights to the image for free. He’s even offered to create a logo of the word ‘Mavericks.’
‘It was a complete surprise for us to hear about the story this morning, and we are absolutely thrilled that we can help the students of Southside, and we’re looking forward to seeing it in use, so it’s going to be great,” Verlander said.
Principal Haver said the school does plan to change the original logo slightly by changing the colors and adding an ‘S’ to the bandana, but Verlander said he will do all of that free of charge.