Dooley wanted us to embrace the shorthand name. LTU doesn't sound good, plus it sounds too much like LSU if people decide to chant it. "LA Tech" doesn't promote the phonetic pronunciation of "Lah Tech". LaTech or La Tech does.
I bought one in the spring of 1966 (LPI days) and still have it. It's a bit thin. However it says LOUISIANA TECH. Now on the sailor cap looking beanie that the bulldog has on it says LA TECH, but they're all caps so that doesn't add or subtract from anyone's argument.
I don't have a strong opinion on either side, except that I don't think it's as consequential as this thread has made it out to be. That said...
If "La Tech" were the selected and standard version (in order to avoid some apparent confusion), might the supposed problem persist when a graphic art rendition would use all caps for aesthetic purposes (as is commmon in graphic design) on a given sign, apparel or ad campaign?
Also, personally, when I see "La" in front of nearly anything, I pause a millisecond thinking "feminine Spanish article". (Not to mention "the note that follows 'So'")
Nope. The official brand is LA Tech, which is bad. It gets much worse when they squeeze it into LATech for web addresses, hashtags, twitter handles, etc. I cringe every time I see the dreaded LATech. It's terrible.
I don't have a problem with all caps LA TECH on our jerseys or logo because I don't think that's the root of the problem. If we did change our official brand to LA TECH, then we'd have a similar problem that the BIG EAST faces (as well as LA Tech). Nobody will use all caps, just like no credible media source uses LA Tech or LATech. Our admin can't even convince The Times or News-Star to use it. It's yelling and not natural so Average Joe won't use it either. It's been over 6 years since Dooley's rebranding with our SID using LA Tech or LATech at every opportunity, and it still hasn't caught on or been embraced by even our own fans. Another signal of a problem.
UCLA's big #LASteel uni reveal this morning...
This is nothing new. Back in the late-80s, my dad used t sell some orange peel based cleaner or something and when he had sold past a level, they sent him a regulation size NFL football. It took forever to get to us in Winnfield, and when it arrived, we found out what took so long.
The USPS sent it to Los Angeles. Even with the correct zip code on the address, the USPS sent it to Los Angeles, CA and then couldn't figure out where Winnfield was out there in the city of Los Angeles, CA. Mind you, it was being sent from the East Coast so it wasn't as if it was someone out West thinking LA was just short for the largest city on the West Coast.
While I was on the equipment staff at Tech, we were anal about anyone calling us LA(lah) Tech. Our resoning was you never had someone say VA(vah) Tech, or GA(gah) Tech. Now, yes, we understood that not saying anything other than we were Tech would not mean crap outside of Louisiana, but that didn't stop us from getting us listed as just TECH a few times on ESPN broadcasts of our football or basketball games. Personally, I prefer LTU, but I know of a few who say they want LAT. For the people who think LA just means Los Angeles, there is nothing that can be done to fix the stupid that is in their brains, but for the rest of the population, we just need to start winning more to get LA Tech out there as a house hold name.
If you are a winning university or a "notable" university you can "take over" a name like Texas A&M took over "A&M". When someone says A&M is drastically building their football program and its facilities there is no misunderstanding that they might be talking about Prairie View A&M or any one of dozens of other A&M colleges.