The Fiend at Court Logo… and a Contest

Once upon a time, I registered another domain, BleepingTennis.com, and commissioned an artist to design a custom logo for it. A few weeks later, I was reassigned to a very demanding project at my day job. It’s somewhat embarrassing, but I actually forgot about that original site when I first registered the FiendAtCourt.com domain. However, once I started the site standup, I came across that old custom logo and repurposed it here.

One of the more interesting stories sparked by the recent death of NBA legend Jerry West was his accidental role in the development of the iconic NBA logo. When it was first released, there was speculation that the player’s silhouette looked a lot like West. However, it was many decades before Alan Siegel, the designer, confirmed the logo was modeled after a photo of West taken by Wen Roberts. For what it’s worth, the NBA has never officially acknowledged the player’s identity.

Siegel’s NBA logo established a precedent for other major sports. At about the same time the NBA logo emerged, Major League Baseball (MLB) released a very similar design. The influence is apparent in the branding of many sporting leagues and teams. It is also featured prominently in tennis, as evidenced by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) logo designs.

As it turns out, the Fiend At Court logo was also based on a photo of a well-known professional tennis player. The silhouette is more abstract than West’s figure on the NBA logo. That makes identification a bit more challenging. However, I think tennis players might be able to figure it out.

To test out that theory, I am conducting a new contest. The first person to correctly identify the player in the comments on this site or Facebook will win one of the highly coveted Fiend at Court embroidered hats. Ironically, you will be among the first to know who the player in the logo is.

There must be rules. Only the first guess submitted by a person each day will be accepted. (Please do not spam me with all the players on the ATP and WTA rankings list.) This contest will remain open until we have a winner.

• Jerry West was the inspiration for the NBA logo, but he was conflicted about the honor, Greg Beacham, AP News, June 12, 2024.