Cullowhee, NC – At the annual Purple-Gold Spring Game head football coach Kent Briggs unveiled a new helmet design for the 2002 season which combines elements of the past, the present and the future of the team. As the Catamount football program prepares to kickoff the Kent Briggs era in the fall of 2002, the look of the football helmets will also begin a new era. “The Cats” logo has been reborn with a look that reflects the significance of the past, a feel for the present and a look to the future. “The new mark symbolizes the importance of the tradition from the past with ‘The Cats’ being brought back to the helmet,” Briggs said. “But this new design adds the ‘cat eyes’ which reflects the vision and our current direction, while the fangs in ‘The Cats’ represent the attacking mentality of the football program. We wanted to incorporate the past, the present and the future. One by itself would not have been as strong or as important as all three are together.” Prior to the 1971 season, Coach Bob Waters and his staff decided that the football helmets needed a new look. “The Cats” written in script became the choice and, over time, the tradition of Western Carolina football. Only changing in color from white to gold, “The Cats” logo remained on the helmets for 27 of the next 28 years. So for 2002, the traditional logo, “The Cats” is back bringing together the past, present and future.