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October 21, 2009
By John Tienken
Columnist
John Tienken |
In early August of this year, I was about to come here to UIS and I wanted a UIS hat or shirt or anything. I walked into the local college sports store and asked if they had anything from UIS. The guy at the counter gave me the “huh?” look I had become accustomed to. Then I responded, “You know, U of I at Springfield” and naturally he said the Champaign stuff is right over there, “Yup, that whole wall.”
Moral of the story, my hat I have now, was ordered online from the bookstore. I figured the source of my problem was that it was a small store and I was going to a small school.
Two weeks ago, I was with my family on family weekend as many of you were and I walked into Cracker Barrel. At this country restaurant/store, there were barrels of merchandise like John Deere hats, or 1950s vintage candy. But, this store highlighted a certain type of product in particular. In fact, right as you walk in, there are two back to back tables of this merchandise. There were shirts, sweatshirts, hats, flags, maybe an umbrella or two and of course the all important oven mitts. On all of these was that big orange I, or Illini. All of these were for U of I at Champaign.
If I were in the Development Office, I would have freaked after searching through the store and not finding any shirt from UIS. Even more concerning should be that this restaurant store is 3 minutes from UIS Campus.
This is a fundamental problem.
Some might say, well no, UIS is just so small. I give them that is true and it will be harder to find shirts in other parts of the state. However what is truly appalling is that not even the City of Springfield’s stores carry our stuff. In fact, search at Dick’s Sporting Goods at the mall to see if they have even a shirt from here.
Or is it because UIS is so new. I offer this thought, University of Illinois at Springfield has only been so named for the better part of a decade and a half, but the school has been an entity since 1970 as Sangamon State. There have been forty years to sign the contracts and distribute spirit wear to stores in the community so that students in the area, people in the community, and tourists from all over the country and the world can see that we exist and perhaps begin to take pride in the unique role of this college in the U of I system.
But to truly know it is a problem is that student such as me struggled to find any spirit wear before coming here. In fact, such a problem that on “What College Are You Going To Day” at my high school, I almost considered just wearing something saying Illini. Look around at this campus and one is hard pressed to find more prairiestar gear than Fightin’ Illini on any given day.
Why is this important? Because there is a reason high schools have spirit weeks. Wearing clothes or gear from your school shows pride. It shows that you are a part of that school and the unique community formed by the schools current students and alumni. If we as a school are to grow as a community where people care and are indebted to the school and treat the school more than a pitstop on the way to another, the least UIS can do is put a shirt on their back.
