Collectibles lacking for JMU teams

On The Sidelines

Some may call me a pack rat, but I love collecting sports memorabilia. I imagine that I'm not the only one either.

For years, I collected thousands and thousands of baseball and basketball cards and other random merchandise. I've kept every ticket stub of every college and pro game or event I've been to. Somehow, I managed to save them from the wrath of a mom who forced me to clean my room.

Once I got to college and got into the journalism field, I began collecting press passes of events I covered. I have everything from the Colonial Athletic Association Tournaments to Yankee Stadium. And just last summer, I added bobblehead dolls to the list of random stuff I hoard.

I wouldn't trade any of those things for all the money in the world — as worthless as some of it is, it all means something to me.

Now that I'm a few months from graduating, I look at all the JMU sports memorabilia I have collected, and it saddens me — not because I'm graduating, but because I don't have that much JMU stuff.
I'm not referring to the T-shirts you can buy a dime a dozen in the JMU Bookstore. I'm talking about sports memorabilia.

I've managed to collect my share of foam fingers, foam paws, foam dog bones to wear on your head, pom poms and too many purple and gold beads from free promotions at four years' worth of basketball games. I've collected the magnet schedules and posters throughout the years as well. All those things are easy to find.

I realized that authentic JMU sports memorabilia is ridiculously hard to come by.

I've gotten a few lucky breaks here and there. Last summer, I managed to snag two basketball practice jerseys on eBay. Then, last September, while shooting photos on the sidelines at the JMU/Virginia Tech game, I came across an Atlantic 10 Conference patch that fell off a jersey.

But, that's about it — three things that I would consider real JMU sports memorabilia.

Why is it so hard? JMU is not that small of a school.

I look at other school's bookstores, and they are filled with authentic game jerseys for football and basketball. Why can't our bookstore be the same way? The last time I saw any form of a jersey in our bookstore was during my freshman year. They had these hideous purple knockoffs of a jersey. At least that was something. Since then, there has been nothing.

I can understand the JMU Bookstore being cautious, considering sales probably coincide with a team's success. If our football team was competing for the national title, that would warrant more jerseys and merchandise. But, there has to be some desire out there. I know a great deal of alumni or Duke Club members who would pay for such merchandise. I even think there are a good number of students who would do the same.

The JMU Bookstore said it is looking into stocking authentic football jerseys this fall. I only can hope that is the case. I'll gladly fork out $50 or so for one of those.

Until then, I only can hope I continue to get lucky finding random memorabilia as I go.

Drew Wilson is a senior SMAD major who would love to add to his collection. He also accepts all donated memorbilia.