MURFREESBORO — MTSU
went worldwide on Tuesday — thanks to one of the most beloved comic strips
that’s been around since the 1930s.
Two sources provided the inspiration for syndicated
cartoonist Guy Gilchrist to draw Aunt Fritzi wearing a T-shirt that read “MTSU
BLUE RAIDERS” in the “Nancy” comic strip that ran Oct. 1 — perfect time coming
days before True Blue Friday and Saturday’s MTSU homecoming game.
True Blue Friday
is the first event stemming from the True Blue Community Initiative, a
grassroots effort launched in September to bolster community support for Blue
Raider academics and athletics. (To learn more about the initiative, launched
by Rev. James McCarroll of First Baptist Church on Castle Street in
Murfreesboro, and watch video from the Sept. 16 gathering, go to http://mtsunews.com/true-blue-community-initiative/.)
The purpose of True Blue Friday is to encourage as many people as possible to
wear blue on Friday in support of Homecoming Week.
The motivation
came from an August interview Gilchrist had with Murfreesboro Daily News
Journal reporter Mealand Ragland-Hudgins and from his longtime friend Boots
Donnelly, the former MTSU football coach, athletic director and ambassador.
Donnelly and Ragland-Hudgins also are MTSU alumni.
“I was on the phone doing an interview with a reporter from
the Murfreesboro paper awhile ago, and when we got finished she was asking me
about all the different T-shirts that Aunt Fritzi wears and she said, ‘What
would it take for her to be wearing MTSU?’” said Gilchrist, a Nashville-area
resident. “I said, ‘Do you know I get about a letter a day from somebody asking
me about their alma mater or when somebody’s going to be in and all the
different schools and everything of course?”
“One night,” Gilchrist said, “I was working along and I had
that blank shirt there to put something on, and I said, ‘Why not MTSU?’ I said,
‘Won’t it be interesting to see if anybody notices?’ Well, we got noticed.”
Originally penned by the late Ernie Bushmiller but inherited
16 years ago by Gilchrist, “Nancy” is seen by 57 million readers and carried in
more than 400 newspapers in 80 countries and the www.gocomics.com website. Gilchrist’s earliest influence was the
late cartoonist Walter Lantz, and his craft began at an early age while drawing
on menus at a restaurant where his mother worked.
Including those from MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee,
football coach Rick Stockstill and the MTSU Alumni Association, more than 100
tweets came Gilchrist’s way quickly. And Gilchrist said the tweets, Facebook
and other social media will keep on happening for days to come.
“We go out all over the world,” he said. “… But you know how
it is with these Blue Raider fans. As soon as somebody sees it, they start
spreading it around to all their classmates and alumni and all that. I wasn’t paying
much attention, I’m drawing and working on the ones for the future, but boy
last night, you guys have really got it going. It’s pretty massive.”
Gilchrist said that he had heard from people from all kinds
of different states, including California, upstate New York, Florida — “all
over the place, some different countries. Between the Twitter and Facebook and
all of that, (MTSU) graduates are everywhere.”
Donnelly was the other inspiration for Gilchrist. The
cartoonist and author of many (and award-winning) children’s books works with
Donnelly’s Backfield in Motion inner-city program and other charities.
Were he not going to be at the Grand Ole Opry this Saturday,
Oct. 5, on a project with country music artist Steve Wariner, Gilchrist said he
would be attending the Blue Raiders’ homecoming game against the visiting East
Carolina University Pirates.
“I’ll definitely be at a game later this season,” he said,
adding that he’s “gotten at least four or five dozen requests to be at
tailgating.” The requests include gumbo, brats, ribs, pulled pork — “every kind
of food. Blue Raider Nation has been welcoming to me and my family.”
Gilchrist has a permanent “Nancy” and painted guitar exhibit
at Nashville International Airport that now will show through 2015, he said. He
also has a partnership with Metro Nashville Public Schools in “Keep Nashville
Beautiful” and eating healthy programs.
###
Note: This needs
to go with the Nancy-as-a-cheerleader image:
"Nancy ® is a registered trademark of UFS Inc. ©2013 Nancy
Partners LLC."
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