March 2004. I holed up in a friend's dorm for the first half of spring break. The region around South Hadley, Massachusetts, is not the typical young person's idea of a vacation until you learn it is the home of Mount Holyoke and four other colleges. (I did not take the initiative to visit those schools.) Since MHC was not quite as commercialized as a big public university, their selection was sparse. I picked up a squat tumbler from their bookstore, not as an addition to the CCP but simply as a souvenir. As you can see the printing is not dishwasher safe. Later the same friend mailed me a shotglass and I decided to include schools that did not participate in Division I athletics - MHC competes in the Division III New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference.
On the same trip, I made a dental memory. Grabbing a late night bite at the main student center, I chipped my tooth on a piece of lettuce. But to credit the lettuce, it was a crunchy part of the leaf.
Early March 2004. The air was moist but it was hard to tell whether its source was natural or artificial. The young Spartans were away on their semester-splitting spring break. With the extra breathing room the maintenance staff was working double time to replace worn grass with bright new turf, soaked to the gills from misting sprinklers. The rolls of lawn were not the only thing about the campus that felt brand new; there was construction all over the place. I was visiting on official business, an odd location to hold a convention to be sure, but UNCG had just opened a massive addition to the student center and was eager to show off its newest asset. Even though classes were out of session, the university bookstore was open, thankfully, as I could not imagine the next time I would pass through G-Bo. Also lucky was the fact that UNCG, relatively unknown compared to the other schools I had visited, carried the same style of tumbler. This company gets around! Later the struggle to find the same cup led me to expand into mugs, shotglasses, etc. But for now, the collection of five stacked together quite neatly.
Sometime in 2004, one year before I discovered you can have a soft side for a town by spending a couple months living there despite its large private university being an athletic rival and consistently leapfrogging your hometown in "Best Places To Live" matrices, I found myself in Charlottesville purchasing another cookie cutter tumbler dotted with the sharp but somewhat anemic "V Saber" logo. If anyone knows the firm that contracts to make these collegiate licensed cups, let me know. I would gladly acknowledge them, but there is no etched copyright, company name, volume in either ounce or congius, nothing!
Fun fact: Did you know the founding of the University was one of three accomplishments Thomas Jefferson wanted etched on his gravestone? Yes, if you know a UVA grad or student, they have eagerly told you that many times over.
First half of 2004. Exit 1 off of Interstate 95 into Newark. Pronounce the town right and you'll be welcomed into this public university where the most delicious of birds are hallowed sacred. When a school has such a wacky mascot as a Blue Hen, I try to grab a cup with its likeness. But at the beginning of the CCP, I was more interested in keeping with the oversized tumbler theme. One could do worse than the classic interlocking UD, but it does not capture the full Delaware identity that includes YoUDee, their unusually well-rendered cartoon chicken, and the bright blues and yellows.
February 2004. I could not discern the weather as the university bookstore was connected to the billiards and bowling hall by a maze of doors and stairs. There was a break in the action thanks to my opponent being a no-show so I decided to pick out a souvenir. UTK, along with Texas at Austin, houses its men's athletic programs completely separate from the women. They even have slightly different logos - the women have sky blue script reading "Lady Volunteers" over the traditional big orange T. I saw a big ol' tumbler that was the same style as the USC one, only different coloring. This is when the whole collection idea began. Four-plus years later, the whim is still going strong.
