ASUSU ready to show ’em its new game shirts
Utah State, get ready for your new Game Day T-shirts. The winning design of ASUSU’s Game Day shirt design contest will be unveiled and on sale the week of Nov. 4, just in time for the first basketball game.
The new design, which will replace the old “Show ’em Your ‘A’ Game” T-shirts, is intended to reinvigorate USU’s fan support. The change comes just in time, said ASUSU Athletics Vice President Rosie Strong.
“We’re entering a new era,” Strong said. “We have the new WAC and a new [football] coaching staff. It was time for a new shirt.”
The winning design came from senior Jonathan Young, an art education major. Young said he has designed other T-shirts, including one for his old school, the College of Eastern Utah. Young said he entered many designs and was surprised by the one that was selected because it was just a “basic sketch.”
“I’ve designed T-shirts before and I know what looks good graphically,” Young said. He added that he wasn’t sure if students would like the design because it has been reduced from two colors to one.
“It’s a good design, but I just wanted more,” Young said. “I’m more of a color person – I’m not a white person.”
Strong said the selection committee, which was comprised of students, bookstore administration and athletic administration, received about 50 entries for the contest. She said they chose Young’s design because it incorporated “Meet the Challenge,” which has become a sort of mantra for the athletic department this year.
“Coach Guy started a tradition of marching the [football] team from the Spectrum to the stadium, past the ‘Meet the Challenge’ statue before games,” Strong said. “That design caught everyone’s eye, like, ‘Hey! He’s tying in the new tradition with the old tradition.'”
Strong said that the original Game Day T-shirts garnered such support when they were originally introduced she thought it would be good to try to bring those feelings back.
“You went to the tournaments and you saw everybody in their Game Day shirts, but that was two years ago and the shirt has kind of died,” Strong said. “We just want to rekindle the fire.”
She said she is not concerned so much that everybody wears the same shirt to games, so long as they show support.
“It’s fine to have a sea of all the same shirt, but what we really want to see more is a sea of blue,” Strong said.
Young said he was offered prizes for winning the contest, but turned them all down. He said he did that because he entered the contest just to help a friend who was involved in the selection process and he accomplished that goal.
“They offered to get me something and I was just like, ‘I don’t need anything,'” Young said. “Good things happen when you help people who need it and that’s just how the design came about.”
The shirts will be sold for $5 in the bookstore when they are introduced. They will also be available at Lee’s Marketplace and Macey’s, but will cost more at those locations.
-jenbeasley@cc.usu.edu