Official Shirt Safari: Purdue Edition

In light of a newfound interest in official shirts for the season, the House Rock Built will be taking you on a journey of all the shirts across the college football world in an effort to kill some time and maybe get a chuckle or two at the expense of the marketing supergeniuses in the front offices of athletic departments throughout the NCAA.

First up on the chopping block is Purdue University, who apparently commissioned Lawrence "Mr. T" Tureaud for the design of their official shirt, entitled "Here Comes the Pain Train, ya jibba-jabberin' fool!"

My prediction for Purdue's 06 season? Pain.

Positives:

• Handy schedule on the back, useful for playing one of my favorite drinking games, "Drink When You See a MACC or Div 1-AA Powerhouse!". Does Larry Bird still have any eligibility at ISU?

Negatives:

• The shirt references the "Herculean Wearers of the Black and Gold". Now, while Hercules was a pretty solid dude (just ask Mama Klump from the Nutty Professor), anyone whose understanding of the character of Hercules goes beyond Disney and Kevin Sorbo (i.e., people who aren't engineers) understands Hercules became more of a tragic character near the end of his tenure. Hercules met his grisly demise after being poisoned by his wife for sleeping around, ultimately forcing him to set himself ablaze to end his misery. While less inspiring, one can hardly say this isn't a more accurate prediction of the 2006 campaign in West Lafayette.

ConclusionsA good concept shirt, although the concept seems to be squashed by cheeziness and dubious and unresearched literary references. I'll give it a C overall, for chamois, since the most likely fate of this ill-conceived garment will be a waxing apparatus for someone's 94 Camaro in West Lafayette.