States sometimes have towns named after other states. For example, there are several towns called Delaware. There’s even an Alaska in New Mexico. And, of particular interest to us today, there’s a town in Oklahoma called Kansas — and their high school sports teams are called the Comets.
“Kansas Comets,” of course, easily reduces to “KC.” Which are also the letters found on a certain NFL team’s helmet. Which is apparently how the Kansas Comets ended up wearing this:
The Kansas Comets @CometsKansas are flying at meteoric speed in this fire red lid for 2024! Thank you coach @kirkwd for choosing Au, the best pick for decals in Oklahoma! #GoComets #Au #CustomizeYourLegacy pic.twitter.com/Tey1C3qtLS
— Au Concepts & Designs (@AuDesigns) April 22, 2024
As you probably know, I’m no fan of high schools poaching pro teams’ logos, but I love how the Comets have repurposed the KC logo lettering here. The whole thing is such a mind-fuck — the “KC” letters inside the shape of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma-shaped logo next to the “Kansas” nose bumper. And unlike the NFL team, which has separate forward-facing arrowhead logos for the two sides of the helmet, the Comets can’t reverse the shape of Oklahoma, so the left-side logo feels awkwardly backwards-ish. The whole thing takes a bit of mental energy to process.
Here are some photos of the Comets wearing this logo:
Interestingly, it appears that the Comets previously used just the lettering, without the surrounding state shape:
Speaking of the letting: I’ve been writing for years about the KC NFL team’s decades-long logo inconsistency. It turns out that the Comets are using the “closed C” version of the logo, while the NFL team uses the “open C” on their helmets:
(Big thanks to Christian Berumen for bringing this one to my attention.)
Makes perfect sense to me, Kansas City is home of Oklahoma Joe’s bbq!
Ate there last week; still prefer Q39. :-)
I like both, but prefer KC Joes (no Oklahoma any longer).
LC’s is where it’s at. Love Joe’s and Q39
The KC on the NFL helmet is made of two distinct letters, while on the high school helmet, they melt into one shape. Is that enough change to avoid the C&D letter?
My first thought with these posts is always, “I hope this doesn’t lead to a C&D.”
I presume from the action pictures, there is another town in Oaklahoma called Chicago?
Logo poaching still alive and kicking after all!
That school is called Colcord.
Fun fact: Colord and Kansas are both in Delaware County, Oklahoma!
A very poor county at that. I am actually typing this a mere 5 miles from “Little Kansas”. That is what we call it. Our place up in northeast Oklahoma has the Colcord address even though our place is 10 miles south of Colcord just off 412 in the next populated area from little Kansas (Flint Creek). Kansas has a population of 802 (per the sign I drive by). Unfortunately, I was unaware they had added an Oklahoma to their helmets. First time I had seen that – no signage anywhere in town with the state outline.
Thanks Paul – the level of knowledge / research / patience to answer a throwaway comment with the actual facts is why we love this site and why you will be missed so much!
I used to travel through Kansas, IL on my way to Paris, IL when I was student teaching.
Within 10 miles of each other, not far from where I live in Midwest Ohio, there is a Russia (Roo-shee), Houston, (House-tin), and Versailles (ver-Sales).
Good stuff, sort of like when I was a little kid and learned for the first time that neither the Kansas City Chiefs nor Royals played in Kansas. And it wasn’t like the NY Jets / Giants playing in NJ, but rather Kansas City itself was in Missouri. My mind was blown.
There is also a Kansas City, KS, right next to Kansas City, MO. Confused the crap out of me when I moved to the area.
But Sporting Kansas City does
This deserves a thumbs up from the Chiefs, not a C&D letter I hope. Actually, the closed C of KC improves the logo I think. Chiefs, take notice!
Kansas City has the K over the C, and Kansas High School has the C over the K.
I’ve experienced something similar!
My orienteering club (which is on my Uni-Watch membership card!) is Orienteer Kansas, which gets abbreviated to “OK” in race results.
My first stab at designing running jerseys for the club ~15 years ago included sleeve logos that were in the shape of Kansas but simply had “OK” written inside (the larger club logo on the jersey’s back had the same Kansas shape but had “Orienteer Kansas” written inside).
Anyway, I moved from Lawrence to Seattle, but I still run for Orienteer Kansas when competing, and when I would wear those original jerseys I made, some local racers thought I was from Oklahoma because they saw the OK on my sleeves and OK in the race results.
When I updated the jersey design a few years later, I changed the sleeve logos!
My computer desktop used to be a map of Massachusetts with TEXAS written across it; there is a small hamlet by that name in the Bay State.
I think the NFL Chiefs would do well to replace the arrowhead with an outline of Missouri. That may not have flown when they shared the state with the Rams.
There’s no way the Chiefs would ever do that. The Kansas side of the KC metro area is not far off population wise from the Missouri side these days and Johnson County in particular has money and plenty of ticket holders. They’d have to put both states on the helmet. Given that the Chiefs also have a substantial chunk of fans in Nebraska and parts of Iowa and Oklahoma, they’d be better off going another direction.
This is also the reason the Saints quit wearing the Louisiana state patch in the 90’s (outside of the 2005-2006 seasons after Katrina). The Benson family didn’t want to tick off the fanbase in Mississippi, southern Alabama, and the western part of the Florida Panhandle
Some serious California of Pennsylvania and Indiana of Pennsylvania vibes here. Good stuff!
Scrappy Glass – what a great athlete name!
Thought the same thing.
Also, this is a great comment coming from a “Dash”
The most awesome thing to come out of Oklahoma since The Flaming Lips
I never noticed before now how much it looks like the K is, er, “having its way” with the C on the Kansas City logo.
I’m also surprised to find out that Kansas, Oklahoma, is closer to Arkansas than it is to Kansas. It’s all very confusing.
I always imagined that KC could replace the Arrowhead logo and put their “KC” logo on the state of Missouri, with a gold star where is Kansas City is located, just like the Dallas Texans’ helmet logo.
One thing that stood out in the photos from the team is the sheer number of uniforms they have for a HS. Maybe uniforms are a little cheaper these days.. but shocked to see what feel like “one-off” designs being used at the HS level.
Hopefully, the Kansas Comets will square off with the nearby Keys Cougars, who also use an interlocking KC.
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