Miamian Magazine Spring '08

Miami to a T

Miamians love their college T-shirts. Where a casual observer might see yellowed shirts that we outgrew years ago, we shake out the wrinkles and instead recall roommates who listened to our dearest dreams. We wore these in our youth when almost anything seemed possible. And even now, they make us remember and smile.

I asked for photos and memories of your favorite Miami T-shirts and you reveled in the assignment, so much so that I could include only a wee portion in the print version of the Spring 2008 Miamian.

Here are all the stories and photos you submitted in their entirety. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

- Donna Boen '83 MTSC '96

Penny Allen Nelson '68
I'm one of those who can't get rid of my special Miami T-shirt. It's been decades since I last wore my "Mother Miami" T-shirt, purchased in the late 1960s. The maroon and white shirt has become faded and yellowish, and the cotton fabric is so thin that I fear a machine washing would do it in. After almost 40 years, it no longer fits and serves no earthly purpose other than taking up drawer space, but I have not had it in me to turn it into a car wash rag, and I'm not a quilter, so the commemorative quilt option is out.

I do not recall why these shirts were sold - other than the standing joke about "Mother Miami" (in loco parentis). I still get a chuckle just looking at the rules list in this "mother's" hand. (We seem to have had a lot more rules 40 years ago.) All good memories.

I bought a Miami RedHawks NCAA Basketball T-shirt when I went to the Miami-Oregon game here in Spokane last March. Somehow, it didn't even come close to replacing the Mother Miami shirt I no longer can wear.

Janet Donahue '70
For a sentiment hard to explain and well after many T-shirts turned into rags, Janet Donahue '70 (left) and Paula Boron Lohnes '70 MEd '72 (right) each saved the same T-shirt, designed by Nancy Patrick Carney '70, Paula's ZTA sister, and sold by student government in 1968 in pride and with subtle protest of "Mother Miami," the in loco parentis figure. So, almost 40 years later, Paula and Jan sported their prized T-shirts.

As promised, please don't laugh!

Tammy Guilian Gentry '90
I attended a porch party as a freshman and was surprised to realize that, at 5'10", I was the tallest person on the porch. I called my dad, who had claimed that the boys would be taller in college, and he said, "Why don't you start a tall club?"

So, some friends and I started Miami Skyscrapers, a social club for tall students. Men had to be 6'0" and women had to be 5'8" to join. We had a great response, and it became a fun, social, and tall club on campus. We made the T-shirts for a fundraiser during Lil' Sibs Weekend my senior year.

A few years after I graduated, I overheard an incoming freshman talking about a MUSF tour of Miami say, "… and they even have a club for tall students!" I was pleased to hear it was still going.

Deb Wallace '03
This T-shirt is the first Miami shirt that I purchased.

In April of 1997, I attended an Accepted Student Open House. At the end of the day, my parents and I went to the bookstore and this is the shirt I got. I knew when I walked onto campus that I would be going to Miami that fall.

Jennifer Otto Hill '93
Two weeks ago I went on our church's senior high youth mission trip to Nassau, Bahamas. I was recruited to go as the "camp" RN as required by the mission group and was doing what I thought was a great job of being "young again" and connecting to the kids.

I was standing in line in our camp's dining hall one evening when another adult chaperone said to me, "I really like the back of your T-shirt. What's the front say?"

I looked down and replied, "Uh, it says that I was in college when most of these kids were born."

She said, "Wow, I'm really impressed. That's an 18-year-old T-shirt!"

We had a good laugh, and I was brought back to the reality that time flies, but remembering the fun I had at Miami never grows old!

Natalie Comer '92
During the 1991-92 school year, I served as associate campus editor for The Miami Student. In those days, the office was located in Sawyer Hall on Western Campus, and the Student was published twice each week on Tuesday and Friday.

One Thursday night in an attempt to complete the layout and design in a timely enough manner to not only get to the printer, but in order that the staff could get Uptown, a graphic of a whale tail was inserted into several small white spaces in the paper. For many issues to come, a white space would often be filled with the whale tail. Contests were held in the Student to determine the tail's meaning and some ideas were actually very clever.

While only a few of the editorial staff were present for the original whale tail layout, the entire staff knew the secret meaning - nothing, it was simply a filler - but we kept it going in the paper for several months and kept all the faithful readers on campus guessing.

It prompted the entire Miami Student staff to purchase sweat shirts with Miami Student Staff on the front and the famed Whale Tail on the back along with names of all the staff members and the statement, "We put out twice a week."

For the first few years I was out of school, I still wore the shirt on a regular basis. As the thin spots turned into holes, I stopped wearing it (at least in public), but I couldn't bear to part with it. Occasionally on a cold night I will sleep in it. It is still the most comfortable sweat shirt I have ever owned, and it also holds more memories. Not long ago while working on a craft project, it crossed my mind to wear it in case I had paint splatter, but I thought better of it - I wouldn't want to stain it!

Jeff Leibovitz '79
Timing is everything. I was ready to pass a box of T-shirts on to Goodwill when I saw your call for T's. There are four 20/20 shirts from the undergrad years and an additional one from a race in the '90s when they allowed alumni to race for a few years. The team was "HEY YOU TOO" and their record was three wins and a second place in four years. The alumni "HOYT" team lapped the field twice. That was the last time alums were invited to race. (Sore losers!) Qualifying positions are labeled on the backside.

There were a few intramural championship shirts from various activities and some items from the Oxford roadrace, MU racquetball club,and the old Oxford Bike Center.

The last pic is of the first MUSF Triathlon T, modeled by my youngest son. We did the relay event as a family. Jack was the first runner (13 years old at the time) out of the transition area and held the lead until 1K before the finish. My other son, Adam, did the swim and I rode. We had a blast and have the T's to add to the collection.

Bob Bayless '74
Bob Bayless (left) and Tom Spurgin, both Class of 1974 and both of Springfield, Ohio, sporting Phi Kappa Psi intramural football jerseys, keepsakes since both were founding members who helped colonize the Ohio Lambda Chapter at Miami.

Kathy Banks Eyer '74
I must admit that I read your article about freshman Miami T-shirts with amusement and camaraderie. Your article prompted me to search the bottom of my shirt drawer for my elusive and endearing shirt from Emerson Hall, 1970. I wore that shirt for many years after graduation, it being my favorite. At one point, I even told my husband that I wanted to be buried in it. (I have since changed my mind.)

It has paint stains and holes, but I have never been able to part with it. The memories that my shirt elicits are very dear as are the memories of my years at Miami. My roommate all four years, Jan Patrick Eighme '74 MAcc '91, and I wore our shirts proudly. She is currently a member of the faculty at Miami. I am a library media specialist at Vaile Elementary School in Richmond, Ind. I return to Miami for games and other events whenever possible.

Jim McPherson '78
There is truly no good angle to make my freshman Collins Hall T-shirt look presentable.

Despite my best effort, the food stains (hmmm, I think that's what they are), crackled, iron-on decal, and stretched neckline make it the relic it remains. But as a longtime sufferer of Packrat-itis, I can never part with it, or my college notebooks, textbooks, and bluebooks in a trunk upstairs … as one day, ONE DAY I TELL YOU, I'll need something from them. Miami still uses bluebooks, don't they … or have they gone by the wayside like my McGuffey Reader?

Debra Jutte Blakeslee '75
I found it! Enclosed is a picture of me wearing a T-shirt from my freshman dorm, McBride Hall. I resided in McBride during the 1971-72 school year.

I think I kept the T-shirt because I wore it at my bridal shower in the summer of 1975. My friends and family held a surprise shower for me. My fiancé, John Blakeslee, also a 1975 Miami grad, had the job of keeping me busy and delivering me to the shower site. We went to a park for a picnic lunch, so I had on T-shirt and shorts.

I was surprised by the shower. I think my aunts were also amused by how casually I was dressed.

Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti '91 MS '93
Here is a picture of me with one of my surviving Miami T-shirts, my Wells Hall T-shirt from junior year, which I really liked for the "Bill and Ted" design on it and the "Be Excellent to Each Other" logo.

I wore it until it became an embarrassment to my family - at which point I demoted it to a nightshirt, reasoning it couldn't be an embarrassment to anyone in that usage.

I kept it in active use until right before my wedding, when I figured my new husband was agreeing to a lot of things, but the Wells Hall T-shirt probably wasn't one of them. It has since resided in the bottom of my drawer, where it occasionally still reminds me to "be excellent to each other."

Kris Saxer-Eisentrout MA '81 MAT '83
I'm sending a picture of me in my freshman hall (Porter) shirt. I saved it all these years because Porter was the unique corridor of eclectic women I was lucky enough to live with through my four years of undergrad at MU. Interestingly, my older sister, Janie '75, and my daughter, Katy '10, are also Porter girls.

Cheri Smyser '90 MEn '94
My mom insisted I contact the Miamian with photos of a T-shirt from 1990 when I lived in Thomson (with an "S") Hall on Western Campus. Thus, here are photos of the front and back of the Haunted Forest T-shirt, which I wore while scaring other students who took the walk behind our hall that year for Halloween.

One of my favorite memories was getting CAUGHT sneaking into the Haunted Forest with my great friend David Palladino '90, but that was before I lived at Thomson. He didn't speak to me for a week.

I teach botany at Miami now part time and am a health physicist full time.

Mark Casner '77
At the risk of dating myself too much, here is a picture of me in my freshman T-shirt from Dennison Hall, 1973. Surprisingly, it still fits. (OK, I can let the air out now.)

Amy Hannahs Hoying '97
I finally parted with my shirts after all these years, but they're still being worn. I gave them to my nephew, and he wears them at work on our farm, so I still get to see them. It's weird to see him wearing my "Ogdenopoly" T-shirt from 1994-95.

Judy Ryan Placko '63
I was sure I had my T-shirt. I opened the dresser drawer and there is was - clean, faded, and dotted with paint and holes. I remembered Ed Grabill's thoughts on the Upham Arch kiss. Women's "hours" prohibited the midnight kiss. I was prohibited from having a hall T-shirt - there were none.

I came to Oxford as a freshman in 1959 and settled into Anderson Hall. Sometime during that first month I bought this shirt. (I would love to have had an Anderson Hall shirt! Stanton and Anderson were torn down during my sophomore year.)

The memory behind the message: "Miami University." Need I say more?

Melanie Matthews Powers '85
I'm enclosing a photo of one of my most treasured items from my freshman year at Miami when I lived on the third floor of Porter Hall in Corridor 6. I loved this shirt and couldn't bear to part with it. It is kept safely stored away along with a few other shirts/sweaters from my college days.

Jann Lynn Tiberghein Coates '79
Well, I had to dig for it, but I knew I had saved it, my T-shirt from freshman year at Oxford College Hall. I lived on the first floor of the women's dorm in a suite with three other girls, Debbie Schuh, Nancy Seamon, and Judy something. I still get together with Nancy and Debbie.

Oxford College Hall was on the other side of town, so we had to walk a ways to get to campus. That's why the shirt says "We've got the legs for it!" We had to plan ahead, and a lot of us rode our bikes. What was really nice was that we had our own dining hall downstairs, so we could eat breakfast in our jammies/robes. It was a great place to spend my freshman year at Miami.

I saved the shirt because I was ping-pong champ, which is on the back of the shirt. I don't think there was really much competition, but, by golly, I was the champ!

Terry Leach '72
My T-shirt represents some not-so-pleasant memories. I wore this shirt after the 1970 Kent State shootings. The front of the shirt is blank and the back has the target.

Nancy Shank Peltier '73
I bought my Support Miami's Chest shirt in my first year at Miami in 1969. Miami Chest sold shirts each year as a fundraiser, and my Dennis the Menace shirt was one of a few left from the previous year. It's probably been at least 25 years since I've worn it. It lives in a box with clothes I wear for painting projects, but it has no paint stains, only holes. Its message still makes me smile.

When school began that fall, we had no idea so much would change before the year ended. We wore skirts and hose not only to classes but even to football games. We were instructed on proper behavior during panty raids and told of the severe consequences of not following those rules. Spring quarter brought a ROTC building takeover, the flush-in, and May 4. Miami closed for several days, and some of us returned to finish classes while others took the grades they had and stayed home. By that time, panty raids seemed quite childish.

The shirt brings back other memories of that year:

•	The Simon and Garfunkel concert (27 years later, my daughter would find a street vendor selling a bootleg tape of that concert during her freshman year at Ohio)
•	The new building the Student refused to call anything but the Assembly Hall (Millett Hall)
•	Miami's first year on quarters and the irritation about that change
•	Meals in the dining hall with white tablecloths
•	Skirts required for girls and ties for boys to gain entrance to Sunday lunch (boys wearing ties over T-shirts were sent back for proper shirts)
•	Hours for girls but not boys
•	Phil's grace in a rough time (President Phillip Shriver)

The shirt is now back in its box.

Amber Mayne '97
I really related to the article about the old Miami shirts. I had a difficult time letting mine go, but as a teacher I couldn't really wear the Green Beer Day shirts anymore. So I put them to another use. I took my favorite T-shirts and made them into the quilt you see here.

Laura O'Neill Ganim '99
I recently had a T-shirt quilt made to help me hold onto my wonderful Miami memories, including my time as a member of the Miami Marlins Synchronized Swimming Team, AOII, and Laws, Hall London.

Linda Manske Ebert '88
I graduated from Miami in '88. What a GREAT four years full of wonderful memories. So many memories that trashing those old shirts just wasn't an option. I saved them for many years, finally making a quilt - you see the Miami Ivy/Senior Challenge '88 front and back, the Miami wrestling sweat shirt (I was manager for four years), my Alpha Phi Omega sweat shirt, and a regular Miami University one. I love having it. We use it at home, for picnics and fireworks. It's a great way to remember some wonderful years.

Cyndy Jirsa '73
As many of my T-shirts were nearing "retirement age," I decided to make a T-shirt quilt and let the memories live on! Besides the two obvious Miami shirts in the photo, the Schoenling T-shirt was won in a contest at Al & Larry's. Sadly, my favorite, "Help Phillup Miami Chest," (navy blue with an air balloon caricature of Dr. Shriver), was long gone by the time I made the quilt.

B.T. Chapman '61
My story doesn't relate to Miami, but you need to know that my 39-year-old son presented my wife with T-shirts dating back to fourth grade in elementary school! He asked that she create a "memories quilt," and so she did and it is beautiful. My second son did likewise, and now son No. 3 has asked that some of his old hats be "customized" and made into a quilt.

Memories are a wonderful thing no matter how they are preserved.

Laura Nafziger Hoag '87 MS '92
I laughed all the way through your commentary on hanging on to old Miami garb.

I was recently sorting through some old clothes and found a pair of "Miami Holidays 1985" boxers. I'm not quite sure why I saved them - other than the very fond memories of my junior year in Flower Hall rooming with three very good friends. I believe the purchase was a contribution to some sort of fundraiser, but frankly I'm not at all certain of the meaning behind the message, assuming there was one. They are still so comfy that they have earned a spot back in my drawer.

I hope you receive enough photos as I would love to see what other Miami alums found in their attics.

	Marcia Deeb '70 My Miami T-shirt only says "Miami" on it, but I still have it. I bought it sometime during my four years at Miami, which was 1966-70. I wear it because it still fits and is very comfortable. And, of course, it always makes me think of my days at Miami, college roommates, Slant Walk, and High Street.

	Marilyn "Punky" Benson Hughes '49 This is my all-time favorite Miami T-shirt. I wear it for the benefit of my friends who ask me about attending that college in Florida.

	Sallie Free '71 MEd '74 What fun! I only wear each of these once a summer. Even so, they are due to retire because of advanced age. "Dennis" dates from the late '60s and "Mother Miami" from no later than 1970, I think.

	Jane Smalley Boyer '71 I don't really know how I acquired this sweat shirt. I did graduate from MU, so there is a link!

Monique Maisenhalter '90 I have some of my Miami T-shirts and sweat shirts - some are sorority garb. I still wear one of the sweat shirts around the house. It's pretty shabby. The rest of them I've put in a box in my attic for safe keeping. What can I say - I can't bear to part with every last one of them. I'm too nostalgic. :)

Robert K. Smith '72 I have attached a photo I took back in 1987 when I returned home to Tucson after attending the MU reunion that year. I had been on a business trip that took me back to Ohio. In the photo are Eric, currently a student at Brigham Young University; my wife, Venna Kaye, a BYU alumna; Doug, a graduate of the Art Institute of Phoenix; and Katie, a graduate of BYU-Idaho. Not shown is Andrew, who wasn't around yet and who at this time hasn't quite decided on a university. I'm the only Miami alumnus in the family, but I get a lot of support, as indicated by their T-shirts.

	Sue Chastant Shontz DuBray '66 I am enclosing a photo of my late husband's favorite Miami sweat shirt. Tom Shontz '66 and I were a Miami Merger. Miami was always very special to both of us, and we enjoyed many trips back to Oxford for Homecomings, reunions, etc. When our son David only wanted to attend Miami and was accepted in the early admission program, we were very happy. That began a new phase of our love affair with Miami as we were now Miami parents. There were many trips to Miami for Parents Weekends, visits, football games, etc. The Miami tradition lived on in our family as Tom's sweat shirt proclaims. As you can see by the stains, it was well worn and well loved. The photo on the sweat shirt shows David '93 in his Navy uniform with his dad. Tom passed away from colon cancer in May of 2004. Please have a colonoscopy when are you age 50, as recommended.

Melissa Carroll Kayser '99 Those ratty shirts always have a story. Having grown up in Mason, Ohio, I felt like Miami's reputation for education majors was bigger than life itself. My only dream was to attend Miami, and even though my mother and my average SAT scores tried to make me realize my dreams were not as in reach as I thought, I couldn't imagine anything else. With all my hopes gathering, I went to visit campus as a senior in high school. As we left campus, we stopped to talk with someone from the admission office to find out about my chances. He gave us each a shirt and encouraged me to take my SATs again and keep my spirits up. I loved that shirt because it stood for the idea that I might one day be able to be a student of Miami University. You can't even imagine the defeat I felt deep in my soul when I received that rejection letter in April. I had no idea what I would do. My father encouraged me to not let go of that dream and got me to attend Miami University Middletown for a little while until I opted to go to Oxford. (Years later, my original shirt died, but my mother's shirt had never been worn, and she gave it to me with the tags still on. I never did chance that I would ruin a second one.) My first semester at Oxford I was a junior, and I wanted to do whatever I could to fit in. So, buying a hall shirt seemed like a bad idea. My roommate's mom said I had to have one and bought it for me. It was the best thing she could have done for me. I wore that shirt to the point of the print coming off. Of course, my next year, I realized it was my last year, so I again purchased our Hamilton Hall's T-shirt. At the end of my college career, which often feels like it really took place in the course of only two years, a Seniors' Last Lecture was offered and T-shirts were given away. I cherished that shirt because it symbolized the culmination of my days at Miami. A few years ago, I realized that I was going to kill my shirts if I continued to wear them regularly. Instead, I decided that I would take them out of "circulation." My mother had started quilting, so I thought I could make a memory quilt with my shirts. I decided that would be a great way to preserve those memories. I bought the material to start, and obviously had the shirts to add to the design, but I have been so fearful that I haven't yet started. The thought that I might possibly destroy the memories each of those shirts holds just has me frozen, in addition to the time that the quilt would take to make. ;-) For each shirt, I remember a different phase of a dream coming true. And I know this has to be one of the corniest things you could hear when it comes to T-shirts, but the truth is often cliché. It's obviously not about the shirt; it's about the memories made during that time of your life that take you back to those Miami days.

	Denise Boutet '80 Attached are pictures of Miami alumni daughters wearing our T-shirts. On the left featuring the "Stanton Studs" vintage shirt is 16-year-old Leah Epstein, daughter of Dr. Avrom Epstein '76. On the right, wearing both the "Great Scott - What a Staff 1982-83" resident assistant T-shirt and "We Were First in Havighurst 1983-84" is 8-year-old Danielle Lane, daughter of Betsey Fettman Lane '84. Leah is a regular baby sitter for Danielle. Dr. Daniel Carey '84 won the design contests for both the Scott and Havighurst shirts, so it is his design that is featured on those shirts. I received this T-shirt when our "independent" intramural co-ed softball team won the championship game in 1980. I saved it all these years, stored away with other Miami memories. It is actually in pretty good condition. We were so proud of our victory. It looks so tiny now. Was I ever that small? LOL.

Lou Pumphrey '64 The freshman hall T's were initiated after I graduated, but I still have my gym suit from freshman year, 1960-61 - shorts and a reversible T-shirt - gray on one side with the word Miami in red and a red profile of a single-feather Native American. I assume the shirt was reversible for playing team sports, where one team would wear the gray side out and the other team would wear the red side out. I guess I held onto the gym suit for sentimental reasons. Perhaps I subconsciously harbored the thought that someday I may fit into those togs again. Yeah, right. Like maybe when I'm 90.

Karen Clift '75 '82 acquisitions librarian Well, Donna, I'd send you a picture of my "Infomaniacs '87" library softball team T-shirt, but I just donated it to archives! I can't find the original Infomaniacs T-shirt from our '86 team. Sorry.

	Diane Skinner Mungovan '87 As my Miami merger husband and I were cleaning a basement storage room, we came across some old T-shirts. One is from my senior year, and the Laws, Hall was from the campaign my junior year. Trott & Bean was an architectural firm from Columbus. It was the first year they allowed public relations majors to participate, one per team. It was quite an honor.

	Chris O'Hea '89 It's crazy that a ratty, old T-shirt is one of my prized possessions from my years at Miami. It brings back some great memories. I received it for being on the Phi Delta Theta softball team that came out of nowhere to win the campus championship during the 1988-89 school year. It was fun to pull out the old shirt and see it again. Thanks!

	Craig Dunn '86 Please see pictures of my Miami T-shirts that I found in the bottom of a drawer in our guest room. I talked my children, Andrew, 9, and Caroline, 7, into modeling them, even though Caroline said hers "stinks." They are turning a little yellow! One is from Greek Week 1985 and the other one from Chain Reaction 20/20 Bike Race at Cook Field in 1986.

	Titus Hicks '81 I was a freshman in 1976 and lived in a single room in Collins Hall. I never did get a dorm shirt, but pledged Sigma Chi that year, and in 1977 received the shirt you see. In truth, my 16-year-old daughter (she's a twin) saw this article first and asked me if I wanted her to take a picture of me in said shirt. It's hers now (not sure why - I think she sleeps in it), and she happily produced it from a pile of clean, unfolded laundry shoved into the corner of her room. I stepped over the dirty clothes she had worn the night before, pushed her desk chair (piled with books and her backpack) out of the way, and took a closer look. Hmmmm … no worse for the wear. I started to ask her where she got it, but then realized I probably didn't want to know. The thought of her rummaging through my bottom dresser drawer and coming upon such things as my T-shirt from The Who concert Dec. 3, 1979, at Riverfront Coliseum (where tragically 11 people were trampled to death in a mob rush to get through the doors), or my T-shirt from a RUSH concert at Hara Arena in Dayton later that same year didn't sit well with me. I had had no ride home that night, and hitchhiked (well, walked mostly) back to Miami, ultimately getting picked up by a guy on his way to work the breakfast shift at the dining hall in Dennison. I got back to my room about 6 a.m., having left the concert around 11:30 p.m. the night before. No, these are not the stories I want to bestow upon my 16-year-old daughter or her sister. All they need to know is that in my day, I did my homework every night, went to bed early, never drank beer at Miami, and learned about concerts from some of my more carefree colleagues.

	Krista Monnin Cisco '87 I lived in Pines freshman year (1983-84), Havighurst sophomore and junior years (1984-86), and Ogden senior year (1986-87). When I saw your note about college-era T-shirts that we are still holding on to, I thought immediately of my Havighurst Hall "False Alarm Club" sweat shirt. I still have it because it brings back such memories. The building was fairly new and for some reason, the fire alarm went off for no reason. (We never actually had a fire.) I think the system was touchy or faulty. Anyway, it went off in the middle of the night fairly often. One week when it was bitterly cold out and there was snow on the ground, it went off a couple of nights in a row, and I think more than once a night. We were all forced to go outside each time it went off to be safe. Someone had the great idea to create these sweat shirts and sell them. I can laugh about it now, but we were not happy about it at the time. I have an unusual Pines T-shirt too. It says "still crazy after all these years" on the back, referring to the fact that Pines (now Wilson Hall) was an insane asylum many years before it became a freshman dorm. It was a really cool place to live because it was different. It was like a gray stone mansion, unusual in a sea of red brick. I know it is crazy to hold on to these for so long, but they were still in great shape (for being 30+ years old) and bring back such great memories of my time at Miami.

	Steven Suh '90 This was our Mary Lyon residence hall T-shirt from 1988-89. I believe it was resident Jon Murphy who took a poll of all the hall residents asking each of us, "Who do we admire the most?" He compiled the most common answers by putting a collage on the front of the shirt. Mary Lyon herself, drawn by Jon, made the list and is the second from the left on the bottom row.

	Mark Jacobs '81 This 1976 Anderson 3 North T-shirt was designed by Richard Stack '80.

	Brenda Hnanicek Furiga '80 Here are a few more T-shirts for your collection. I was a freshman in Reid Hall 1976-77 and a resident assistant there in 1977-78. The Reid Hot shirt was from my freshman year, the Little Rascals from sophomore year. My mom was cleaning out closets over the summer and found these - I thought they were long gone.

	Jim Haskamp '77 This T-shirt is from the first co-ed dorm at Miami in 1975. It still "fits" 32 years later. Besides the T-shirt, I also have my wife of 27 years, Barb, from that Flower Hall dorm experiment too.

	Christine Schmidt Sivak '89 Attached is a picture of me wearing a unique Miami shirt. My junior and senior years I lived off campus with eight other girls. Most of us met freshman year in Tappan Hall. Our senior year we decided to name our house at 116 West Collins "InnDecision." We thought it summarized that time in our lives well. What should we do? Where should we live? Is everything going to be OK? The shirt was painted by a mother of one of the girls. On the front she painted a picture of our house, complete with the swing that had a hard time staying up. On the back she listed each of our names - Kelly, Joleen, Kim, Pam, Jennifer, Maria, K.K., Susan, and me (Chris). She gave each of us one of these shirts after the graduation ceremonies. There was never a doubt in my mind I would keep this shirt forever. These women were like sisters to me. In good times, in tough times, we stuck together. I felt blessed to share the Miami experience with them and am very happy that I am still close with many of them today.

	Connie Kendall Sidley '72 I got this shirt in October 1970 when the Boars Head sponsored a beer chugging contest. (It was 3.2 beer at the time.) My sorority, Sigma Kappa, won the contest and everyone in the chapter got one of these T-shirts. Side note: I was an observer of the contest, not a participant because I didn't like beer (and still don't).

	Jane Hawkins Dodge '75 Linda Yocum White, Donna Sivulka, and I, all Class of 1975, returned to Oxford this past May on a two-day quest to identify the site of Beasley's Bakery. Linda and Donna also enjoyed good times at Mac & Joe's during the visit.

	Chris Carter '89 A couple of months ago I was going through drawers and happened upon two shirts that have somehow managed to stick around all these years … and through many moves. Since leaving Oxford, I have moved eight times, and yet these memories have followed, though not in the best of shape anymore. Mac & Joe's and Green Beer Day. Wow. I don't know if it is done anymore, but that was some crazy stuff. Getting up at some crazy hour, or not even going to sleep for that matter, and drinking green beer at the crack of dawn … and maybe making it to an afternoon lab. :) The football shirt has seen much better days. That was the 100th time Miami and UC played. I don't really recall the game or how I got the shirt for that matter.

	Laura Todd Burgoon '79 I have attached pics - wow, the age of the shirts is doing better than the age of my face! Both shirts were purchased freshman year. Why did I keep them after all these years? Who knows ? I just did. My best guess on sentimental value is I was an avid Miami football, basketball, and baseball fan when I was there, and Al & Larry's had great beer and peanuts! Both shirts were made in the U.S., a rarity these days. Ah, the good ole days.

	Gerri Sutton Ohde '82 This was given to me my freshman year for my birthday by my roommate, Patrice McNamara '83. Both of us were distance swimmers on the Miami swim team. She located this sweat shirt, which was actually for our distance "track" crew, and had the "swimming" screenprinted on. I do wear it on occasion still.

	Les Brauer '74 T-shirt No. 1 celebrates the 1973 MAC Football Championship, which was my senior year. That team went 11-0, including a Tangerine Bowl victory over Florida, and was ranked No. 15 in the AP sportswriters poll. T-shirt No. 2 reflects my major: pulp and paper technology; currently paper and chemical engineering. PCE has a student chapter of the national TAPPI organization (Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry). The predecessor to that student chapter was MAPPS club (Miami Association of Pulp & Paper Students). Our club did a MAPPS parody by substituting Partying for Pulp. We did the silk screening ourselves. A green T-shirt was chosen as it represented trees. These T's were a limited edition as only 50 were made. We sold them for $5 each to raise club funds; $5 in the early '70s was worth more than it is today and $250 was a significant part of our club budget.

Jennifer Bowen '05 I'd love to tell you about my sister's business, "Campus Quilt," which takes old T-shirts and transforms them into quilts of all sizes. I had one made with all my old Delta Gamma T-shirts. What else was I going to do with 30 date-party tees when I moved to Chicago? Eventually, one must give up the glory days and let go of the sorority. My sister's Web site is www.campusquilt.com. A large portion of her business revolves around university T-shirts and the process of conserving those wonderful (but closet-consuming) college memories into one lifelong keepsake. You never have to get rid of those freshman quad/Green Beer Day/Greek Week/Shriver Center cottons.

	Editor's note: Rod Nimtz '79 MA '81, who came up with the idea of all of us sharing our Miami T-shirt memories, actually sent his to me in campus mail. Along with it, he attached this note, "Took me awhile to find it, but it was at the bottom of a dresser drawer in the back corner, as I suspected. It's from the fall of 1977. Needless to say it is now more of an archive piece rather than an item of current wardrobe."

	Kitty Unger '54 She loves her T-shirt, which is a more recent addition to her collection. She says it takes people a few minutes to figure it out. When they do, they love it … almost as much as she does.

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