At 4:30 p.m. Friday, The Shirt Committee at Notre Dame announced its 37th annual design, a navy color with a class ring and the Golden Dome on the back.
The first Shirt was created during the 1990 football season. That year, the University sold 9,000 shirts that featured a hand-drawn design with then-Coach Lou Holtz. In recent history, 2011’s Shirt, entitled “Cheer Cheer For Old Notre Dame,” has sold the most at 165,000 purchases.
Proceeds of the initiative are split — half going to the University to support clubs, organizations and the Office of Student Enrichment, and the other half going to The Shirt Charity, “which helps students afford unexpected medical expenses,” according to the organization’s website.
This year’s Shirt was unveiled in Duncan Student Center after poor weather conditions forced the event off of its original location on Library Lawn.
Opening events included a performance by the Notre Dame Glee Club, singing its signature rendition of “Tonight” from West Side Story.
Fr. Pete McCormick, assistant vice president of Campus Ministry, emceed the event, keeping the audience engaged with jokes and various activities throughout. Following the Glee Club, McCormick brought up several children from the audience to play “Simon Says.”
The Undertones performed its cover of Jason DeRulo’s “Whatcha Say,” followed by McCormick taking the stage to engage the audience again. McCormick called out various colors, encouraging the audience to cheer for the color they hoped the Shirt would be.
He called out, “purple” and “pink,” receiving minimal cheers, followed by “gold,” which received some cheers from the audience, and “green,” receiving more cheers than all of those before it. Joking with the audience, McCormick said the obvious next color choice must be orange, before calling out blue and receiving a majority of cheers from the audience.
McCormick also led Notre Dame trivia, with topics ranging from the first year of the Shirt to the football coach who has won the most national championships at Notre Dame.
The next act to perform was the Hawaiian Club, dancing two separate dances, followed by Project Fresh, who breakdanced for the audience.
Halftime, an a Capella group, sang “Neon Trees” by the Animals and “Somebody to Love” by Queen before the Bagpipe Band marched into the Student Center, performing a variety of songs before concluding with the Notre Dame Victory March.
Irish Dance of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College was the next group to take the stage, shortly followed by McCormick returning once again to gauge the crowd’s choice for color of the Shirt, before welcoming the Planning Committee onto the stage.
The Planning Committee, co-chaired by seniors Molly Sullivan and Anna Huber, came onto the stage, noting that since 1989, over 3.5 million shirts have been sold, resulting in over $13.5 billion raised for students at the University.
Freshman quarterback CJ Carr, junior cornerback Leonard Moore, freshman receiver Quincy Porter and junior defensive tackle Francis Brewu were all present alongside the committee as the countdown began.
The front design reads Notre Dame, split down the middle by the University’s traditional-style class ring. The backside depicts four football players, wearing the numbers 1, 8, 4 and 2 — a nod to the University’s founding year, pointing upward at the Golden Dome.
Speaking to The Observer, Sullivan said the design process for The Shirt began during the fall semester. The team first needed to choose a vendor before deciding on the primary color of the piece of apparel.
She said that this year, the Committee mainly focused on different varieties of the color blue, saying they wanted to choose a design that would be “accessible to a lot of different skin tones and making sure that it’s something many, many people will be excited to wear.”
Sullivan said the navy shirt is designed to include both a football and faith identity, with this year being the first time in 27 years that the Shirt includes an image of the Dome. She noted that the stars above the Dome are the stars in the Basilica.
The words, “Love Thee Notre Dame” — the final line of the Alma Mater — are imprinted on the back, with an image of a clock on the left sleeve — the time set to 18:42. Sullivan described the time as an “easter egg.” The words on the front are in the same font as the words, “In Glory Everlasting,” above the World War I Memorial Door at the Basilica.
“The Shirt is kind of all over the world, which is cool to make that much of an impact on Notre Dame history,” Sullivan said.
