School spirit is the new black
T-shirts will aid Spirit Club in blackout at football game this Saturday; T-shirt's origins explained
Jessica Kneller
Issue date: 9/17/09 Section: News
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Students cheering on the Chargers in the newly moved student section, which has its new home in the visitors' bleachers, found themselves sporting the other team's colors.
"They were a bad color because they were black and got very hot," Elizabeth Anne Odell, a freshman who proudly donned her T-shirt at the game, said.
Student Activities Director Rebekah Dell explained the color choice.
"We had just gone through the school's colors. We change them every year so that no one has a duplicate shirt," Dell said.
The black color, however, should aid the efforts of the Spirit Club this Saturday as they sponsor a blackout during the first home night game in years. Dell said she hopes students will wear their shirts to rally against the University of Indianapolis.
The first Otter's Army T-shirt was created during head coach Keith Otterbein's first season in an attempt to raise school spirit.
"We wanted to get the kids excited about Charger football," Otterbein said. "Michigan State has the Izzone, so I came up with the idea to give all the students T-shirts."
Area businesses with close relationships to the college, along with the Alumni Association, provided funding and still sponsor the free shirts today.
The "Otter's Army" name was originally the result of a student suggestion.
"It was originally going to be the 'O-zone,'" Otterbein said. But once the current name was suggested, it stuck.
Eventually, the design evolved to include the familiar soldier with a Charger lightning bolt on his helmet. Since then, the logo has been printed on thousands of shirts.
"It's amazing when you walk around campus and see how many people are wearing them," Otterbein said.
Dell also pointed out the success of this year's shirts.
"Usually after the Source, I have a couple hundred left, but after the first week or so, I'd given out all of them," she said.
Unfortunately, since the roots of the slogan and design are now older than the current senior class, the meaning is less clear. Trent Demarest, a senior, has mixed feelings about the design.
"It looks like a midget in a seizure helmet. It's a strange icon that people just blindly put on," he said, adding that without context, people's initial thoughts are not about a football team. Demarest also admitted that he wasn't sure to whom the "army" refers.
"Maybe we're his army, or maybe the football team is. I'm not sure."
The distinction is not a concern to Otterbein.
"Football is not a priority for every student," he said. "But involvement with supporting athletics can be a way to relax and have fellowship with other students."
Otterbein, in turn, encourages his players to build relationships off the field.
"It's a two-way street," he said. "Our guys have to reach out."
Students should expect to see the same design on future shirts for now. Dell said all those in-volved with the creative process have not discussed a new logo. She said that if any changes are made in the near future, the "Otter's Army" slogan will remain untouched.
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