Bill Nester remembers the attitude surrounding Syracuse football last year.

Nester, a co-owner of Manny’s Quality Syracuse University Apparel and Novelties on Marshall Street, said that at this time a year ago people would come into his store and grimace at the thought of being associated with Syracuse football.

‘In the past couple of years people wouldn’t even want to be shown football stuff,’ Nester said. ‘They would go to a football game but would rather buy basketball or lacrosse stuff. They just wanted something that said ‘Syracuse’ and didn’t want it to say football.

‘But now people are coming in here with smiles on their faces and they’re starting to buy football stuff again.’

During the past four seasons under former head coach Greg Robinson, SU suffered its worst stretch in program history, compiling a 10-37 record. In that span, attendance in the Carrier Dome dropped and the merchandising market took a hit, with fans not wanting to spend money to support a struggling team.

With the arrival of quarterback Greg Paulus from Duke and new head coach Doug Marrone, the Syracuse football merchandising industry has seen a significant increase in product interest this year. Stores including Manny’s, Orange Shoppe in the Carrier Dome and the SU Bookstore at the Schine Student Center, have all seen a rise in sales of SU football-related products.

Manny’s currently offers eight different football T-shirts – three more than it did a year ago. Though Nester would comment on the exact number of shirts he has sold this year, he said that sales are nearly 50 percent better than last season. He has even had to restock on some football related apparel – something that he never had to do last year.

Average attendance in the Dome has risen this season to 41,162 from 33,474 a year ago, and stores have started stocking up on football related products to accommodate the nearly 8,000 extra fans.

‘We were excited that there was going to be a new coach, and we wanted to support that by offering and carrying more football related products,’ said Gale Youmell, the merchandising manager for the SU Bookstore. ‘We definitely wanted to bring merchandise in so that we were supporting the excitement of the new coach, the new quarterback and the new team.’

Holy Shirt!, the company that designed the ‘Marathon Men’ T-shirt last March, released a new shirt at the beginning of the year to commemorate the arrival of Paulus as the new quarterback.

‘The Devil Wears Orange’ T-shirt – a play on Paulus’ Duke basketball past – has become the latest hit on the evolving list of Holy Shirt! Products, and has become a regular sight on campus.

The shirt was a spur of the moment design that evolved from a simple brainstorming session between John Groat, the founder and owner of Holy Shirt!, and his brother, Chris.

‘We kept thinking about it from time to time over the course of the summer,’ John Groat said. ‘As the school year approached, we had one day where we really were focusing on it, and we were bouncing ideas off of each other about Paulus and the fact that he was a local boy. In that session my brother just said, ‘I’ve got it! ‘The Devil Wears Orange.”

Groat admits that ‘The Devil Wears Orange’ shirt has not been as nearly as profitable as the ‘Marathon Men’ shirt, but it has definitely been a ‘pleasant surprise.’

‘It’s not our first football shirt, but I would say to date it has been our most successful football related shirt,’ Groat said. ‘We haven’t done many of the catch phrase-like T-shirts specifically for football, but so far people have really enjoyed it.’

Paulus’ landing back in Syracuse has even merited the release of his jersey.

Last year, it was hard to find jerseys without the No. 44 on them – the number worn by SU legends Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little. The team lacked an elite star and merchandisers didn’t see any other jerseys worth purchasing.

But when Paulus arrived on campus, retailers jumped on the opportunity to stock up on the No. 2 jerseys.

‘The past five or six years, we haven’t really had a player that we could produce a jersey for,’ said Michael Theiss, the merchandise manager at Orange Shoppe. ‘We have been just going with the generic 44 jersey because that’s kind of the catchall when you don’t have a real standout star player. The No. 2 jersey has outsold the 44 pretty handedly.’

The new sense of interest in football merchandise, however, is something that is to be expected after the signing of a new coach.

Nester said that this sudden surge in interest is very similar to the one that occurred with the signing of Robinson four years ago. He expected there to be an increase in sales no matter whom the Orange signed as its coach.

‘When Robinson first came here, it was exciting, but it went downhill from there,’ Nester said. ‘You’re going to see an excitement this year if they perform. If they don’t perform, then you’ll see a gradual down.’

It still remains uncertain as to whether the SU football team will be able to maintain its sudden burst of interest and keep merchandising sales flourishing.

Theiss said that only time will tell, but he is optimistic for what the future holds.

‘I’m not 100% sure that that’s going to happen this year, but Marrone’s taken the team and made giant strides compared to where we were with the last few years.’ Theiss said. ‘I’m encouraged, and I think the future looks bright.’

rwmarfur@syr.edu

Published on October 5, 2009 at 12:00 pm