IOWA PARK (KFDX/KJTL) — During half time of Friday’s Iowa Park High School’s football game, the creator of the original hawk logo will be honored.

When Weldon Bradberry created the logo in 1968, it was hung in a local laundromat. Because it was so beloved in the town, the school decided to make it their official logo.

It was 1968.

The Bradberry’s were on the way back from vacation in Colorado when they stopped in Quanah to eat. That’s where Weldon Bradberry got the idea for the original Iowa Park fighting hawk logo.

“The Greenbelt Bowl was going on. Coaches were scouting. He happened to walk by, and he saw it on a coach’s portfolio,” Shirley Bridwell, Bradberry’s sister, said. “He came back to the table and immediately started doodling it on a napkin.”

Bradberry drew the doodle out on bigger pieces of paper and hung it up in a laundromat window.

Once the town caught wind of it, the rest was history.

“’68 and ’69, it was the dominant logo that Iowa Park used because we were the dominant football team in that time period,” Bridwell said.

Bradberry was one of the top players on Iowa Park’s 1968 semifinals football team.

He passed away in January of 1969, just a couple of days after undergoing a minor shoulder surgery.

While Bradberry’s life ended early, his memory lives on through family members who make sure future generations know of his story.

“Having the Bradberry name here has meant a lot to me; it’s really special to me,” Charlie Bradberry, Bradberry’s nephew and Iowa Park High band director, said. “What I want people to know about my uncle is he wasn’t just good at football. He was also a good artist, he was also a good singer, he was also a good musician. He did lots of things really, really well. And I’m excited to come up here and teach kids and help them find their potential.”

While the logo has been modernized since 1968, the Bradberry family wants the community to know how it began and the man who made it happen.

“His passing certainly affected the community. Any time you lose a young person that’s so talented, it affects any community,” Bridwell said. “His legacy is his legacy and not a number. So we are very happy that his history is going to hang in the school.”

His legacy is one that many will remember when they see that green hawk.

Bradberry’s memorabilia will be hung at Iowa Park Middle School, where he attended high school as the current high school was being built.