Online orders pushing sales through SU bookstore

SYRACUSE -- The Syracuse Marathon Men overtime t-shirts have now outsold the Overrated t-shirts made popular by the Gerry McNamara Big East run in 2006.

John Groat is one of the owners of Holy Shirt. He says they have now made and sold more than 20,000 Marathon Men t-shirts since creating and producing the shirts the day after the six overtime win versus Connecticut.  The shirts have been wildly popular at the Syracuse University bookstore since their first printing last Friday, but it was two pieces of national publicity that really exploded the volume.

ESPN announcer Jay Bilas mentioned the Marathon Men t-shirts during the Syracuse – West Virginia game on Friday night in the semifinals of the Big East tournament. The t-shirts were shown during the broadcast that was viewed nationally.  Sports Illustrated also did an online piece on SI.com on John and Chris Groat and the t-shirts. That article by Kevin Armstrong further expanded the international exposure for the legions of Syracuse and college basketball fans around the world. In that article Syracuse Hall of Fame Coach Jim Boeheim said, “I guess people will do anything for a dollar. There's something to Gerry's run and this one, though. Gerry's was unbelievable. This one might be unbelievable in another way."

Betsy English is the director of the Syracuse University bookstore. She says staff is furiously filling online orders which have exceeded walk in purchases. English says orders have come in from places like California and Australia.  She credits the national exposure of the Syracuse basketball program and the unique nature of the effort the team showed during that six overtime win for the shirts’ popularity. Online orders are being shipped now so fans all over can have the Marathon Men t-shirt to wear when the Orange takes on Stephen F. Austin in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday shortly after noon in Miami.

Groat says this is a wonderful side success story for his small business. Holy Shirt typically handles orders for schools and church groups in the range of 50 to 80 t-shirts at a time. Shirts are still available through the Syracuse bookstore.