The Official History of Green Shirt Thursdays

Ok, here goes. After the Alumni Race in 2001, Coach Hamel was selling the Prep North Cross Country shirts. Now for those who are not familiar with the St. Louis area or anything of the sort, Prep North is the high school that our coach went to and ran cross country for. It has since closed. Coach Linhares had his high school shirts remade and some of the runners bought them since it is the 'history' of the program since coach modeled his program after his high school coach's program. So Brennan Connor and I both wanted one and we were going to purchase one. We weren't sure whether to buy the green one with the yellow letters or the yellow one with the green letters. Now at the time I wanted the yellow one with the green letters one because Coach had that one. Green was actually a JV shirt at Prep North. But then Brennan told me that we should both buy green ones and then we'll wear them on Thursdays and they will be Green Shirt Thursdays. And so it began....It started off strong and some people were picking up on it. Green Shirt Thursdays soon became a symbol of the newly formed BAMFOs, a faction group within SLUH XC. But there was a bump in the program my senior year (2002) when I left my green shirt in either Kyle Gonnerman's car(minivan/gonnervan) or his house. So for a few months I was without a green shirt. This was the dark ages. However, a few lads, namely Matt Killiany and Dan Flanagan, managed to keep it alive during those months. Finally Kyle returned my shirt to me and we began to spread the word. Here at Truman, we purchased some stylish pea-soup-green shirts and had "Thursday" pressed on the back. They are also size small, so they are nice and tight and the ladies love them. They are all like, "why aren't you wearing your green shirt?" and I am all like "It's Tuesday." So that is pretty much the story. And if that doesn't inspire you to wear a green shirt, I don't know what will. To all the ladies out there, buy a green (preferably tight) shirt and write Thursday across it. Then you will be almost as cool as me. Then you can take a picture of yourself, well it'll be better if you have your roommate, or even Matt take a picture of you and then have the pictures developed and give it to Matt and then he will e-mail it to me and then I will see the support of the greatness of Green Shirt Thursdays. And as most of you know there is a tough date coming up for those of you that only own one green shirt. I luckily have three: my Thursday shirt, my Prep North shirt and my Minnesota shirt that I bought at three in the morning one night in Minnesota this past November. But St. Patrick's day falls on a Tuesday or Wed., so you should wear your Green Shirt on St. Pat's day and the following Thursday. You don't have to worry about washing it because having a green shirt on is more important than having a clean shirt on. And (for the ladies) you can always put on some perfume or something to cover up any unwanted scents. I prefer Curve for Women. And there you have, at long last, the history of Green Shirt Thursdays
By: Kevin Crean
Edited by: Matt Killiany

The collegiate years saw Green Shirt Thursdays grow from its humble beginnings on a cross country team to a widespread following. Many SLUH XC alums took their Green Shirts with them to college and spread the good news of Thursday. I took it as my personal responsibility to get as many people to wear Green Shirts on Thursdays as possible. I began by writing a reminder on everyone's marker board on my floor early every Thursday morning (I had chemistry lab at 7:30, so I was awake before everyone else). People continued to forget to wear their Green Shirts, so I began sending out messages over AIM to everyone on my buddy list to remind them to wear their Green Shirt on Thursday. These are the messages found in this archive. They progressed from short, simple ad slogans to longer, more complex songs over time. For some, even the AIM reminders were not enough. They claimed they had no Green Shirts. In response to this, I designed and had printed (thank you to the good people at the T-Shirt Place who charged me $1.50 less per shirt than they were supposed to) the Official Green Shirt Thursday Shirts. The picture is the design on the front of the shirts. These shirts were distributed to friends and family who in turn gave shirts to their friends and families. They also served as the jerseys for the GST intramural soccer teams at Dayton. Similar stories of success occurred at several other colleges and others are in progress. I even found a completely independent group of Green Shirt Thursday followers. In the post-collegiate years, the messages will continue being sent and posted and hopefully those who have been exposed to Green Shirt Thursdays will take the tradition with them.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Fun Fun Fun

Well she got her Green Shirt
And she cruised through the hamburger stand now
Seems she forgot all about the library
Like she told her old man now
And with the radio blasting
Goes cruising just as fast as she can now
And she’ll have fun fun fun till her daddy takes her Green Shirt away

Well the girls can’t stand her
Cause she walks looks and drives like an ace now
She makes the Indy 500 look like a roman chariot race now
A lot of guys try to catch her
But she leads them on a wild goose chase now
And she’ll have fun fun fun till her daddy takes her Green Shirt away

Well you knew all along
That your dad was gettin wise to you now
And since he took your Green Shirt
You’ve been thinking that your fun is all through now
But you can come along with me
Cause I’ve got a Green Shirt for you now
And we’ll have fun fun fun now that daddy took your Green Shirt away
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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Every Morning

Every morning there’s a Green Shirt hangin from the corner of my girlfriend’s four post bed
I know it’s not mine but I’ll see if I can use it on this Thursday for a one-night stand
Couldn’t understand
How to work it out
Once again as predicted left my own Green Shirt open
and you ripped it off
Something's got me reeling
Stopped me from believing
Turn me around again
Said that we can wear it
You know I wanna wear it again
(Sugar Ray say)
Oh.....
(Every morning)
Oh.....
(Every morning when I wake up)
(Wear the Shirt, baby. Don’t say a word)
Oh.....
(Green always rights the wrong. Green always rights, Green always rights)
(Wear the Shirt, baby. Wear the Shirt, baby.)
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Stairway to Thursday

There’s a lady who’s sure
All that glitters is Green
And she’s buying a stairway to Thursday
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a Shirt she can get what she came for
Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to Thursday
There’s a sign on the wall
But she wants to be sure
Cause you know sometimes Shirts have two meanings
In a tree by the brook
There’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder
There’s a feeling I get
When I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen
Rings of Shirts which are Green
And the voices of those who stand looking
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it really makes me wonder
And it’s whispered that soon
If we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn
For those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow
Don’t be alarmed now
Its just a spring clean for the May Queen
Yes there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There’s still time to change the Shirt you have on
And it makes me wonder
Your head is humming and it wont go
In case you don’t know
The piper’s calling you to join him
Dear lady can you hear the wind blow
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind
And as we wind on down the road
Our Green Shirts taller than our souls
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to Green
And if you listen very hard
The Day will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll

And she’s buying a stairway to Thursday
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