Dig your alma mater? Prove it

The soft spot the typical Joe and Jane College have for their alma mater deepens in the years following graduation. Extending that alumni allegiance into perpetuity is Collegiate Memorials, a company out of Macon, Ga., that sells coffins emblazoned with college logos.

Not surprisingly, most interest in these collegiate coffins has come from the powerhouse schools of the South and Midwest, where devotion to sports ranks up there with interest in eating and breathing.

Dozens of institutions have struck licensing deals with Collegiate Memorials, but the company’s macabre niche represents just one variation on the theme of increasingly weird college merchandise.

As much as any sweatshirt or pennant, these eclectic items send a message of membership and pride. As a bonus, they serve a purpose (more or less), from meeting burial needs to boosting sex appeal.

A full range of merchandise will be on display next month at Camex, a trade show in St. Louis dedicated to the needs of the more than 1,000 college bookstores from across the country that are expected to shop there.

“Not all campus communities are as staid as Harvard. You have a lot of schools out West, for example, where sharing your license with a toilet seat manufacturer may not seem like such a bad idea,” said Laura Nakoneczny, a spokeswoman for the National Assn. of College Stores, the group that runs Camex.

Alas, the groups pitching college-branded hovercraft and Harley Davidsons won’t be at this year’s event, Nakoneczny said.

Nor will Collegiate Memorials, whose products are available only through funeral homes.

But in attendance will be Bufkor Inc., a company that peddles high-end office paraphernalia to nostalgic alums.

About a year ago, the Clearwater, Fla., company started making chess sets to fit college rivalries.

For about $400, University of Michigan fans, for example, can maneuver against Michigan State University using pieces cast in the teams’ colors.

In its first year at the trade show, Hotline will be pushing something more intimate than chess sets: thongs. The company that got started with sales to Las Vegas showgirls has begun embroidering college and sorority logos into the minute triangle of fabric on the thong that tends to emerge from low-rise pants.

Underwear and school spirit sundries such as candles, lip balm and henna tattoos are obviously geared toward buyers still enrolled in classes.

Although alumni hold the big money, students represent the market at hand.

“At many campuses, the bookstore is the most convenient retailer to students. They shop there as much as at Wal-Mart or Target,” Nakoneczny said.