By Claire Crocker, Bulldog Blitz
Most have seen the iconic “Sam Not Stan” shirt playing off a common mistake of confusing Samford with Stanford. However, students my not know how the shirt was made.
The “Sam Not Stan” shirt first started with Athletic Director Martin Newton. He used to work for Nike before he came to Samford and has many connections there. His previous coworker, Tracy Teague, came up with the idea of the slogan. Newton recruited Teague’s son, Sam, to play for the Samford men’s baseball team back in 2014. He played for Samford all four years and was a graduate of the sports marketing program under Professor Darin White.
Teague told everyone he knew in his hometown in Oregon his son was playing for Samford. However, they constantly misheard that he was at Stanford. This sparked the idea for the slogan. Since he was working for Nike, he created the “Sam, not Stan” shirt.
Once the Samford bookstore began selling the shirt, it went viral. It became a hashtag, and people posted photos their own shirt all over the world.
The Samford bookstore is still selling the “Sam Not Stan” shirt, still provided by Nike.
