Students wear emotions on sleeves as way to honor Hep

While other students at IU went on vacation or took classes over the summer, seniors Mike MacDonald and Ben Oprinovich spent their time filling out paperwork for Indiana and the Internal Revenue Service.\nThey weren’t in any legal trouble. Instead, they were en route to gaining a trademark for their T-shirt that is being distributed around campus with the slogan, “Win it for Hep,” in honor of the football team’s late coach, Terry Hoeppner.\n“It probably took about a month to do it,” MacDonald said. “We wanted to do it because we didn’t want to encroach on something other people were doing because I’m sure that there were a lot of people who wanted to try and do something to remember coach Hep.”\nMacDonald and Oprinovich have spent all the money needed to make the T-shirts out of their own pockets and are donating all of the profits to the North End Zone Project. The project will create a new strength and conditioning facility at the north end of Memorial Stadium, as well as an Academic Resource Center.\nThrough word of mouth, fliers and Facebook, MacDonald and Oprinovich have sold about 600 T-shirts – which go for $10 – prior to the start of the season and expect sales to climb as students move back on campus.\n“We’ve seen people walking around campus with them and it kind of gives you a warm feeling,” MacDonald said.\nLike MacDonald and Oprinovich, senior Jared Boschan wanted to find a way to honor Hoeppner. But instead of applying for a trademark, he is still currently talking to the IU Athletics Department about the possibility that it will use his idea as the official student section T-shirt.\nBoschan, who is the president of the IU Football Believe Train, a group he created in the fall of 2006, and the group’s vice president, Ryan Garber, came up with the idea for the nearly 1,000-member team to participate in a T-shirt contest in memory of Hoeppner. \n“The idea of letting the students decide and create the T-shirts, I thought, would just raise awareness and raise excitement for the team,” Boschan said. “What ended up happening was, we ended up having 25 to 30 ideas and combined a few of them together for a T-shirt.”\nThe T-shirt sports the name ‘Hep’ on the right sleeve and has the slogan, “Every season 1 team defies all odds. Play 13” on the back. Boschan is selling his shirt for $10 as well. The proceeds will go to the IU Football Believe Train and pay for the cost of making the shirts, he said.\n“Our goal is to create a strong student section for the fans and we hope that everybody supports the team and wears the T-shirts and unite every week,” Boschan said.\nThough the IU football team won’t be selling shirts as Boschan, Macdonald and Oprinovich are, they will wear their own tribute to Hoeppner. A football patch with the words “Hep” will be located above the left breast of their uniforms, while the words “Don’t Quit 13” will be found on the back of each helmet to honor Hoeppner’s aspirations of reaching a bowl game. Both tributes were created by the seniors on the team.\n“It’s just saying a reminder about the goal that coach Hep sent us out here to get done,” said senior cornerback Leslie Majors.