Column:

Show MU some respect, boycott other Big 12 shirts

By Sami Hall

Published Oct. 6, 2009

The minute I knew I was attending the MU, my wardrobe changed forever. Suddenly, my closet was stocked with enough black and gold to last me a lifetime.

Organizations were handing out free T-shirts everywhere I went. Joining a club meant two things: something to put on my resume and a T-shirt to let everyone know I was in the club. I refuse to believe any student doesn't own enough MU merchandise to last them at least two weeks, which is why I have such trouble understanding why people still wear certain peculiar clothing.

That clothing is the merchandise of other Big 12 schools. All too often, I see people who are obviously MU students walking around campus in clothing bearing the insignia of one of those other 11 schools — The blasphemy of it all.

But I saw the worst offender last year. I was walking to my economics class, when under Memorial Union's arch I saw a guy wearing a University of Kansas T-shirt. Of all the gin joints in all the world, he is wearing KU merchandise at MU.

Not four seconds after I noticed the offender, I see three or four men nudge each other on the shoulder, hear them spew out a few well-placed expletives and feel them brush past me as they quickened their pace to catch up with the man obviously lacking in both brain cells and common sense.

I do not think I am being overzealous when I say the man in question learned a lesson that day: Wearing a KU shirt on campus to be funny will only garner laughs from the people watching someone beat the crap out of you. I'm just being honest.

Don't get me wrong: I never advocate violence. I have enough sense to know what not to do in order to keep my person in working order. That list includes not cheering for President Barack Obama when Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele mentions his name, not insulting the Queen of England when in London and not wearing a KU shirt at MU.

Call me crazy, but it is my understanding as a MU student, your loyalties should lie with your school. The Big 12 conference is an extremely competitive one, and it is our job as students to support our school. If your loyalties lie elsewhere, perhaps a transfer should be considered. And yes, I am being serious.

I do not care if your boyfriend or girlfriend goes to Texas and bought that hoodie for you. I do not care if your parents met at Nebraska, fell in love there and that is how you came into the world. I do not care if you originally went to the University of Oklahoma and then transferred to MU for our outstanding journalism school. I do not care. If you go to MU, then you should tout MU.

I have one final thing to say about this and then I will be done: Each and every one of us made the conscious decision to attend MU. If you made this decision under coercion or the influence of some illegal substance, then now is the time to come out from under that. I can think of no other reason why someone would wear the merchandise of another Big 12 school. But maybe I just love my school too much.