Toulouse. Plagiarism, rubber stamping: the incredible story of the Stade Toulousain logo
By Philip Salvador
Published on
A T entwined with an S. If the whole rugby planet knows the logo of the Toulouse Stadium, the club with 21 Brennus Shields and 5 European Cup stars, few people know where it originated. It all started in the early 1950s. History holds that Lucien Cereza, then president of the club, would be the first to have had the idea of associating an acronym with it. Very simple, with black letters on a red coat of arms. In the club’s archives, the oldest official document on which it can be found dates from 1951.
A medieval style
While the logo only made its appearance on the Rouge et Noir shirt at the start of the year 1970, his style evolves, little by little. The letters are now handbooks: they are inspired by handwritten, unbound writings, drawn with a pen, such as in the middle Ages.
An obvious plagiarism
Some observers then realize a strange resemblance between the acronym of the boarders of Ernest-Wallon and… a floor mosaic of the Holy Spirit chapel of the Saint-Sernin basilica. We see the same two letters intertwined, in a circle. But nothing to do with the initials of the club of the red virgin, it is this time those of Saint Thomas Aquinas. They were registered here by the architect Viollet-Le-duc, in 1874, 33 years before the creation of the club.
Author of the history of Stade Toulousainpublished by Hugo Sport, Etienne Labrunie concede that there is obvious plagiarism. And again, the logo has yet to take its final form.
Pine madness
In the early 1990s, the country was carried away by fashion Pines. These are small metal pins that attach to clothing, like a badge. “All the rugby teams have done well, on the occasion of a victory in the championship for example. By selling them, they constituted a small pot for the end of the year gueuletons! ” remember Serge Lemaire, essential historian of the Rouge et Noir club, author in 2015 of Stade Toulousain, an institution, published by Hugo Sport. In an old cardboard box, the man kept about fifteen of these pins in the colors of the Stadistes. They are all different. It is the drawing of one of them that will go down in history…
Irrefutable proof
A pin is indeed unanimous among club officials, for its aesthetics and colors. To this point that they reproduce it on paperto illustrate the game sheets.
“At each meeting, we went to make our impressions at EDF, a partner of the club, which had one of the rare color photocopiers of the time”, specifies Serge Lemaire, then member of the management office of the Stadium. He remembers: “One day, above the photocopier, Georges Cayrol, one of the leaders, wanted delete a task with an eraser on the symbol. This had left two parts a little paler, where the red is missing…”.
As incredible as it may seem, we find these traces of gum on the official Stade Toulousain logo which was registered, at the same time as its brand, in 1994, by the general secretary Alain Laffont.
“It was the era of amateur rugby, a family affair. Everything was very handcrafted! finished Serge Lemaire.
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