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Fans seek apparel marking U-M humiliation

September 6, 2007

Melissa Mina of Campus Corner II 501 E. Grand River Ave., prints the special request T-shirts featuring the scoreboard from last weekend’s Appalachian State vs. Michigan upset.

By halftime of the Michigan football game against Appalachian State on Saturday, two tailgaters who had been listening on the radio in East Lansing had a pressing request for custom clothing store Spartan Corner, 103 E. Grand River Ave.

“They called and said ‘Can you make a T-shirt that has ‘Appalachian State’ on it before the game ends?’” said Samantha Lawrence, an English senior working at the store.

With the MSU game still underway and almost no customers, Lawrence and her co-workers had just enough time. Minutes before a blocked 37-yard field goal attempt capped off one of the most embarrassing losses in U-M football history, the tailgaters burst through the door and tossed on the T-shirts.

“It was the fastest turnaround ever,” Lawrence said. “We were hustling to get them done for these guys.”

While the store may have been one of the first to hear requests for clothing that commemorates the defeat, it certainly wasn’t the last. Workers designed another T-shirt Tuesday, inspired by the game, for a seventh-grade boy, Lawrence said.

Campus Corner II, 501 E. Grand River Ave., has heard similar requests since Saturday.

“Every single day, people have come in and wanted them then and there, on the spot,” store manager Melissa Mina said.

The store is designing two T-shirts with the game score in forest green letters by noon Saturday for the Bowling Green game in Spartan Stadium. Lingg Brewer, an East Lansing developer, ordered the shirt for himself and his son, Gideon.

“I have three daughters who go to U-M, so it should be pretty enjoyable to go down to Ann Arbor and wear the shirt to a game,” said Brewer, who travels to Michigan Stadium for a football game once a year.

Aaron Gorden, a Perry resident, walked into Steve & Barry’s, 515 E. Grand River Ave., with his 4-year-old daughter, Drew, on Wednesday and immediately asked for an Appalachian State shirt.

“I’m trying to get something by gameday this weekend to add a little salt to the wound,” said Gorden, who has season football tickets with his wife, Alison, a 1994 MSU graduate.

Steve & Barry’s manager Ross Spets told Gorden he wasn’t in luck – the store doesn’t carry the shirt and doesn’t plan to anytime soon.

“If it comes down to it, I might have to get a plain white T-shirt and a marker and make that work,” Gorden said. “I’m sure I won’t be the only one in the stadium this weekend with one.”

Scott Meloeny and Erik Johnston, managers of Underground Printing, 209 M.A.C. Ave., said the custom clothing store plans to have a special shirt made to remind U-M fans of the beating before their team comes to town and squares off against the Spartans on Nov. 3. “We really want to do some soul searching and come up with something good,” Johnston said.

The two have already brainstormed ideas for what words might go on the shirt, including “Appalachian State: Part Deux,” “Appalachian State Revisited” or “Appalachian State: The Second Coming.”

Underground Printing has five locations on university campuses in the Midwest, including one in Ann Arbor.

“People have come in and are having a ‘Fire Lloyd Carr’ shirt made at that store since the team lost,” Meloeny said. “That loss will still be relevant the week of that game. It was the biggest upset in college sports history.”

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