CAPE GIRARDEAU SCREEN PRINTER DISAPPOINTED BY NFL OWNERS' CHOICE

When the National Football League named Jacksonville as the site for its second expansion team, supporters of a proposed St. Louis team were crushed.

The team in St. Louis was to be called the Stallions; its players were to wear bright yellow and purple uniforms and play in a brand-new stadium the city is building.

A Cape Girardeau screen printer was also pretty disappointed to hear St. Louis wasn't going to get a football team.

Glenn Reeves, owner of Horizon Screen Printing Inc., had been referred to the NFL by one of his customers on the East Coast to print shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants bearing the Stallions logo to be marketed throughout the area.

In fact, had St. Louis been voted in by the NFL owners as the city to receive the new team, Reeves would have had 20,000 Stallions shirts printed by 3 p.m. Wednesday, he said.

But instead of churning out the shirts at lightning speed starting at about 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and working straight through until the first order was filled, Reeves had to box up the materials that had been provided to him by the NFL and return them early Wednesday.

"I was sorry when I heard the news," Reeves said Wednesday. "But I was more sorry about St. Louis losing the team than I was about not being able to print the shirts."

Horizon has printed things such as shirts, decals, bumper stickers, identification labels and signs for nationally recognized companies for years, but this was the first time Reeves' company had the opportunity to print NFL-licensed merchandise.

"We get a lot of referrals," said Reeves. "I was really open to the idea of printing the shirts for the Stallions, but I knew it hinged on whether or not they got the team."

Horizon opened in Cape Girardeau 12 years ago. The business, at 430 Broadway, currently has 22 employees working on two shifts. Reeves said his company can turn out as many as 15,000 shirts a day, in addition to the menagerie of other items printed in the shop.

Reeves said a lot of business owners lost out when the NFL opted to include the Jacksonville Jaguars on its roster, beginning with the 1995 season.

"Having an expansion team come to St. Louis would have helped businesses in the whole area," said Reeves. "Having a football team in a city can boost all kinds of businesses.

"St. Louis needs a football team," he said. "Maybe next time we'll get one."