Gu Ready For Merchandise Blitz

The NCAA tournament is more than a week away, but Gonzaga University’s bookstore is already ahead of the game.

Bulldog shirts can now be purchased online.

Last year when Gonzaga’s scrappy basketball team caught the national spotlight, fans wanted team shirts.

While major universities have national distribution contracts, the only place to buy a Gonzaga shirt was the campus bookstore in Spokane.

Caught flat-footed last year, demand for shirts swamped the small bookstore staff. The store dropped the ball by not getting out shirts to commemorate a first-round victory. Most of the staff’s time was spent fielding orders as fans jammed the single phone line.

Not so this year, sports fans.

Gonzaga’s athletic department and bookstore went into business with a national sports memorabilia company called Fansonly.

Now people can get shirts at the bookstore, through phone orders or on the Internet. The Web site, www.gozags.com, also lets you send free e-cards, featuring photos of players such as Casey Calvary dunking the ball.

“We decided to go for it because they do a lot for us,” said Mike Roth, Gonzaga athletic director. “It’s more available for people to get it and go.”

And if the Zags win, the next batch of shirts are automatically printed and sent to the store.

“We’re ahead of the game this year,” said Connie O’Brien, customer service manager for the bookstore. She’s well-seasoned now.

“After last year, it doesn’t surprise me when people from Bangor, Maine, want a shirt,” she said.

Orders from the Web site are forwarded to Gonzaga, which mails them out immediately. About half the orders are still coming in by phone, O’Brien said.

“It’s getting pretty busy, but we’re excited,” she said. “Everyday it grows and we’ll get busier and busier.”

The newest shirts came into stores Wednesday. Already, the XXL T-shirts are cleaned out. Hats, polo shirts and sweat shirts were askew in the racks.

When students return from spring break Monday, she expects sales to escalate. Whether it heats up like it did last year depends on the team.

Last year, a fan tried to buy a Bulldog shirt from Sister Laura Michels of Gonzaga, who was wearing it at the SeaTac airport. During last year’s tournament, Web traffic shot up to a million hits a week for the GU site, which usually averages 35,000 a week.

Odds are, O’Brien said, the Bulldogs will again capture new fans in the tournament.

She knows because when people call to order, they chat a bit and say they think it’s neat that a team from a small school can compete.

“They just want some kind of memorabilia from Gonzaga,” O’Brien said.