#35: Making T-Shirts

Notre Dame Students love T-shirts. They love T-Shirts of all shapes and sizes and they wear them at every opportunity they have. To class, to the gym, to parties, to football games, and to bed; Notre Dame Students will wear T-shirts as often as possible. Because they like T-Shirts so much they will also make T-Shirts at every possible opportunity they have.

Students will design T-Shirts for every possible organization that they are a part of, and then sell them to members of that organization. There are T-Shirts sold by class councils and majors that are rarely purchased, while T-Shirts that are sold by clubs become hot commodities. Many students can be seen wearing T-Shirts sold by the Future Investment Bankers Club or the Future Republicans Club even if these students are not really active participants in these clubs.

The campus organizations that will make and sell the most T-Shirts are the residence halls. Dorms will sell T-Shirts for every event imaginable. SYRs, Pep Rallys, Frosh-O, Signature Events, and Hall of the Year awards are all events that demand dorms to produce T-Shirts. While these T-Shirts are rarely funny, intimidating, or fashionable, they can be widely seen around campus.

However, while most University and High School students make T-Shirts for the clubs and teams that they are a part of, Notre Dame Students also love to make shirts for reasons that are not as obvious. Because Notre Dame Students loathe to wear THE SHIRT (itself a shirt that is designed by Notre Dame Students, see #2) much of the student body makes their own shirts that are the same color as THE SHIRT. These T-Shirts can range from the simple and classy* to the lame** to the overly complicated***.

Many students take this a step further by making and selling shirts that simply mock opposing teams. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this, as these shirts are somewhat clever, they are senseless because they almost always utilize the colors of the opposing team so that when Notre Dame Students wear them to games they appear to be fans of the opponent from afar (as in on television).****

Notre Dame Students continue their T-Shirt making tendencies for things that have nothing to do with athletics or even sporting events when they make them for events such as parties (PigTostal, BabeTostal), friends running marathons, living in or near a given quad of O’Neill 4b, Bookstore Basketball, drinking 40s on Fridays, and even for believing that Professor McKenna is their homeboy (see #15).

Whatever the reason, group, or event, Notre Dame Students love to make T-Shirts, and they love to wear them even more.

*Classy T-Shirts: Charlie’s Army, Charlie’s Angels, Brady Quinn for Heisman

**Lame T-Shirts: Golden is Thy Tate, New Coach, New Pope, New Era, anything about Ronald Talley

***Overly Complicated T-Shirt: I live in Keenan which must mean that I know James Aldridge which henceforth vis a vis means that he is the best running back on our team and I will yell for him no matter who is in the game or what is happening, even if we are on defense [note, this might not be an actual T-Shirt].

****Senseless T-Shirts: Backup College (in Boston College’s maroon and yellow), Trojans Break (in USC’s maroon and yellow), Sparty Sucks (in Michigan State’s white and green), Muck Fichigan (in Michigan’s yellow and blue, because maize and yellow are the same thing).