Southeast's Redhawks logo goes down the catwalk

From sock caps to sweat pants, Southeast Missouri State University unveiled its new Redhawks merchandise Wednesday at a fashion show that drew a crowd of about 400 students and school staff eager to get a first look at the items.

Students, cheerleaders and staff -- including university president Dr. Ken Dobbins -- modeled the merchandise in the University Center lobby. One by one, they emerged from behind a red curtain decorated with two large pieces of paper shaped like a cracked egg to signify the birth of the school's new Redhawks logo.

The school's pep band also played at the event, which concluded with the dropping of balloons in the lobby.

There was plenty of merchandise to model: T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, polo shirts, shorts, caps, umbrellas. Many of the clothing items came in different colors: red, black, gray and white.

Santa even showed up and showed off the school's water bottle with the Redhawks logo.

Don Kaverman, the university's athletic director, said the new Redhawks merchandise includes about 40 different clothing items.

Kaverman said the university rushed to make the items available for students to purchase before the end of the fall semester, which concludes next week. The campus bookstore began selling the merchandise after the fashion show.

"It all looks very good," said Dr. Ed Leoni, a health and recreation professor who headed up a campus committee that spearheaded the retirement of the school's traditional Indian nicknames and came up with the new Redhawks nickname.

The school's board of regents approved the name change in June. The university then spent the next several months developing logos to accompany the name change.

Southeast also plans to unveil a new Redhawks mascot in January.

Dane Huxel, Student Government president and one of the models in the fashion show, said students previously have had little to choose from in terms of university clothing. Southeast hasn't marketed a nickname in years. Clothing simply carried the name of the university or "SE" for short.

"Who wants to buy that?" Huxel said.

Plenty of people wanted to buy the new merchandise when it went on sale Wednesday afternoon. "We sold close to 500 items in the first hour and a half." said Jan Chisman, manager of the Southeast Bookstore in the University Center. Most of the items sold cost about $20, she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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