Go Utes! U. apparel is red hot

Sharing crowded Crimson Corner shopping space with dozens of other University of Utah students and supporters inside the bustling University Bookstore, Richard Olsen glanced at racks of school sweatshirts, tried on Ute baseball caps and checked out various red trinkets Friday afternoon before finally finding the perfect item for his game-day wardrobe.

You might recognize him today at Rice-Eccles Stadium. He'll be the one whose head resembles Ronald McDonald and Bozo the Clown.

Then again, judging brisk sales lately, the Utah alumnus probably won't be the only one wearing a big, poofy, bright-red wig.

And he definitely won't be the only one donning paraphernalia adorned with a block U. or crimson colors.

Coach Urban Meyer and his football squad haven't just created excitement at the stadium with their Top 10 ranking, BCS flirting and undefeated record. The Utes have also created a buzz everywhere Utah merchandise is sold — or sold out.

Suddenly, Utah gear is as hot as Boston's Red Sox — explaining why the day before the Utes' next highly anticipated kickoff felt like Christmas Eve in the bookstore, with scurrying shoppers, red-hot sales and crimson-clad items going like hotcakes at a chuck-wagon breakfast.

Meyer should have worked a royalty commission fee on U. stuff sold into his contract, and bookstore employees only wish they got a percentage based on restocking shelves. Sales of Ute merchandise are up as much as 80 percent on campus compared to last year, U. licensing administrator Shane Hinckley told KSL-TV this week.

Bookstore sales manager Nancy Gray says the shopping spree has been phenomenal.

"Having a good football team makes a difference," she said, adding that it's the students who ultimately benefit, as revenue goes back into the school's budget to improve parking and to fund other needed improvements.

The increased business has even spilled over to other parts of the bookstore, where sales of education supplies and trade books are up. That, says Shane Girton, the bookstore's acting director, is not a coincidence.

"It's real exciting. Everybody is having good sales because of more traffic," Girton said. "There's a lot more talk about the team and where it's going. I think Urban Meyer is mentioned in every conversation for what he's done for the university."

Utah's bookstore isn't the only one seeing red in a good way. Ute purchases are way up at local sporting merchandise stores.

Carl Stock, a manager at the Fanzz outlet in the Crossroads Plaza, said U. product sales have increased 70 percent this fall, and 2003 was better than the year before.

The reason, he explained, has everything to do with Utah's 6-0 record.

"Everybody," he said, "loves a winner."