By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
Diane Browning Photo by Claudia Loucks
Nearly all Geneseo residents are familiar with the “Green Machine” character emblem that has been used on T-shirts, sweat shirts and more, and most recently on the T-shirts sold by the Junior Class at GHS. But, like myself, many do not know how the “mean-looking little guy” originated.
Recently, I was informed about a lady living in Geneseo who knew the history of the caricature,
Diane Browning and her grandmother, the late Eleanor Ross, are the artists who are responsible for original drawing. Browning is a 1976 graduate of J.D. Darnall High School, now Geneseo High School, and she estimated that the drawing was done more than 50 years ago.
“My grandma and I drew it together,” Browning said. ‘My grandparents were big football fans and my grandma was a very good artist. We didn’t copy it from any picture or pattern, just drew it free-lance.”
She recalled they were in the basement of her grandparents’’ Geneseo home when they created the cartoon character on a large sheet of plastic…”We just started drawing and somehow the picture of the ‘Green Machine” character came about. We painted him in green and gold because those are Geneseo colors.”
Browning has a photo of her grandparents, the late Eleanor and George Ross. It was her grandmother who, with Browning, sketched the “Green Machine” character. Photo by Claudia Loucks
At that same time, Browning’s parents, Loren Ross, and the late Drucilla Ross, of Geneseo, operated a ’76 Gas Station at the corner of Illinois Rt. 82 and Ogden Ave.
“My Dad posted the cloth picture on a large board and put it up on display by his gas station,” Browning said. ‘It was up there every football season for a few years until a storm came up and ripped it apart.”
Browning said her dad estimated the year all that happened was near 1974-1975.
She does not have any original papers of the drawing, “only the memories,” she said. “I was about 16 years old then, and my grandma and I were very close and would often draw things together.”
The “Green Machine” character has been used on shirts and hats, etc., in previous years as well as this year, and Browning’s sister, Lory Woolsey, purchased one of this year’s T-shirts and presented it to her sister.
“Having the shirt means the world to me, and when I see the picture of the little Green Machine guy, it makes me think of my grandma,” Browning said.
Kim Windisch, who teaches at GHS, and who also is one of the class sponsors of the GHS Class of 2027, shared how the caricature drawing was used again on this year’s football T-shirts.
“I have a T-shirt with the ‘Green Machine’ character from the football season of my senior year (2001) at GHS, and for this year’s football season, we wanted a throwback to the ‘Green Machine’ guy,” she said. “We think he is just an awesome image.”
She contacted Breedlove’s Sporting Goods in Kewanee, and they had the pattern from use in previous years. The shirts were ordered and sold by the Junior Class earlier in the current football season, and most likely, with the popularity of the “Green Machine” character, the design will be used on T-shirts in many more GHS football seasons.