By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Rhyannon Potter was at Notre Dame, working at the university bookstore when the Fighting Irish hosted Army in early November, which is one of busiest weekends of the year in South Bend.
While she helped employees there selling Fighting Irish attire, she kept hearing about "the shirt."
"Everyone was talking about the shirt, the shirt," she said. "I finally asked, 'What is the shirt.'"
It is the Notre Dame Tradition Shirt, which has been a fixture at Notre Dame since 1990.
Each spring, students design a t-shirt, and Notre Dame fans quickly gobble them up. Since 2005, Notre Dame has sold at least 100,000, and in good years, more than 165,000.
Students usually come attired in the shirts for the first few homes games each fall. If you want to learn more about "the shirt", click here.
Now the Director of the ODU Bookstore, Potter thought it would be a good idea for ODU to adopt the Notre Dame tradition.
Working with various departments at ODU, bookstore and athletic officials quickly collaborated and in just a few months, designed a new ODU Tradition shirt.
The shirts will be available for purchase for the first time this Saturday when the Monarchs hold their annual spring football game at 2 p.m. at Kornblau Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium. An initial order of 500 shirts was made just in time to get them here for Saturday, but more are on the way, and the bookstore plans to sell the shirts throughout the summer at their location on Monarch Way and at various student events, including new student orientation.
The spring game also has a new name – the Priority Charity Bowl ODU Spring Game.
This year's shirt is a salute to ODU's impending move to a new conference. On July 1, ODU joins the Sun Belt Conference, a league that will offer the university closer regional rivals, a higher television profile and much stronger football schedule.
The shirts include ODU's marketing slogan, "New Dawn, New Day," with a depiction of the East Side stands at Ballard Stadium.
ODU's East Division rivals will be James Madison, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Marshall, Georgia State and Georgia Southern.
Shirts will be on sale Saturday at both the ODU Bookstore and underneath the East Side stands at $28 apiece. They will also be available on the store's website.
LINK TO ODU BOOKSTORE WEB SITE
ODU is a youngster in college football compared to Notre Dame, which began playing football in 1887 and has long-established traditions. ODU's program began in 2009 and is still developing traditions.
"When I was at Notre Dame, I thought how fantastic it would be to bring this tradition here to ODU," Potter said.
"I really felt like we needed to unveil it at the spring game. We kind of rushed it to get it done in time."
Notre Dame also unveils its Tradition Shirt each spring.
Notre Dame's shirt is designed each year by a committee made up largely of students and some proceeds – up to $300,000 per year – go to help defray medical expenses for students who can't afford health insurance.
Next year, Potter said she hopes the bookstore can work with student services, the student government, athletics, the university's licensing committee and others "to collectively design a shirt that everyone had a hand in."
She also hopes that group can choose a philanthropic activity that t-shirt sales could benefit.
ODU is coming off a 6-7 season that marked a dramatic turnaround for a program that had not had a winning season, nor been to a bowl game, since 2016.
The Monarchs began 1-6 and garnered national attention by winning its last five games to claim a bowl bid.
ODU hosts Virginia Tech in its first game on Friday, Sept. 3, and also hosts state rivals JMU and Liberty as well as Marshall, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern.
Season tickets are selling at the fastest rate in years.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE ODU FOOTBALL SEASON TICKETS
Admission to the spring game is free.
Minium: ODU Tradition Shirt to Be Unveiled at Priority Charity Bowl ODU Spring Game
