Oregon's Spirit T-Shirts & fundraiser

[NT80]

Ducks fans to get decked out

By Gabe Bradley, Oregon Daily Emerald

August 17, 2005

(U-WIRE) EUGENE, Ore. -- "Get inDUCKted."

This will be the slogan emblazoned on the chests of thousands of fans at Autzen Stadium for the season's first home football game Sept. 10.

The slogan for this year's Spirit T-Shirt, which was unveiled July 22, is about teamwork, being part of a larger group and showing support, according to Nita Nickell who works for the University of Oregon's trademark and licensing department.

"Every year for the last three years we've tried to build fan support in the stadium," Nickell said.

From this effort came the idea of the Spirit T-Shirt, which hit the shelves two seasons ago with the slogan "Lighting Strikes!"

For the past two years, university staff members have come up with the slogans. This year, however, the trademark and licensing department wanted to involve the community in the process by holding a contest to write the slogan for the shirt.

"This year was the first time it was open to the community," University Bookstore Marketing Coordinator Alma Hesus said.

A committee judged more than 2,000 entries and selected the winning slogan, which was written by Springfield resident Todd Crump.

"We wanted something that would show action and excitement," Nickell said.

Entries came in mostly from the local community, although there were entries from across the country and even Canada.

"I'm just really glad that everybody -- the community -- was able to come and participate in that," Hesus said. "I think there are so many great ideas out there."

Crump won a $200 Duck Shop gift certificate and a pair of football season tickets. First runner-up Dave Hoff of Vancouver, Wash., won two tickets to a Pac-10 football game as well as a $100 Duck Shop gift certificate.

Second runner-up Becky Stringfield of Eugene won a $50 Duck Shop gift certificate.

"I think that made the community get really excited about it," Nickell said. "We hope next year will be even more fun."

The shirts are bright yellow to create a more visible and imposing presence when fans wear them in the stadium.

"For one thing, it's very visible when it's a televised event," Nickell said.

Hesus said it's "a way to intimidate the other team."

Nickell said stands full of fans wearing yellow goes right along with the slogan, which emphasizes teamwork.

"We want our school to look like we have a great support system in our stadium," Nickell said. "The Michigan game was an excellent example of that."

Hesus said stands full of fans wearing yellow highlights how few fans are in the stands to support the visiting team.

"It's really bright, and it's really fun," Hesus said. "It's so exciting. It really stands out."

The T-shirts costs $7. Making them affordable is a crucial part of the strategy of getting as many fans as possible to wear the shirts.

"It's a nice quality T-shirt and we use a local screenprinter so that stays in the community," Nickell said.

In addition, $1 from every shirt goes directly to the University's cheerleaders and bands.

"So it's a fundraiser as well," Nickell said.

In years past, the fundraising aspect of the T-shirt sales has been very effective.

"It's enabled our cheerleaders to be in a competition they couldn't have been in because they didn't have the funds," Nickell said.

In the two and a half weeks since they've been on sale, this year's shirts are selling well also.

"They've been doing pretty good," Hesus said. "I've seen them all over Eugene."

[NT91]

We need to do something like this for the Tulsa and

Troy games.

[Gakusei]

We need to do something like this for the Tulsa and

Troy games.

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There's limited support for this idea at NT.