College's New T-Shirt Design Has a Pretty Nice Origin

There's a new T-shirt for sale at the University of Tennessee, but even those who aren't fans of the Volunteers might appreciate the origin story. As WJHL explains, it began when an elementary school student in Florida wanted to wear a UT shirt to school for college colors week. He didn't own one, so he did the next best thing—the unidentified boy wore an orange T-shirt with his own hand-drawn UT logo taped to the front of it. You can see it here, via a post from Laura Snyder, his teacher at Tallahassee Elementary School. Snyder posted the image because other students teased the boy so much about the shirt that he broke down in tears.

Snyder planned to get the boy an authentic UT shirt on her own, but she reached out publicly hoping someone with connections to the university could help make the gift a "little extra special." That's exactly what happened, and then some. First, UT interim President Randy Boyd tweeted his support. Then the university turned the boy's design into a shirt that's now for sale at the school gift shop for $14.99—with part of the proceeds going to anti-bullying efforts. "I am overwhelmed by the love I feel from this extended community," the boy's mother wrote, per WVLT. (More University of Tennessee stories.)