by Stacy Hutto
Staff writer
During the True Blue Spirit Ribbon Cutting
Thursday, Aug. 23, at Paul Laird Field,
Durant Mayor Jerry Tomlin proclaimed that
Fridays and Saturdays would be ÒTrue Blue
Durant CommUNITY Days.Ó He urged
business and residents to show their support
for Southeastern by displaying royal blue.
Many Durant businesses are supportive
of Southeastern and offer discounts to students,
faculty and staff.
Durant has the opportunity to visibly
show its support by covering the town with
royal blue.
In many other communities during the
time leading up to football season, towns
are carpeted with school colors of local colleges.
The Chamber of Commerce and Main
Street Board along with Tomlinsin would
like to see the same thing in Durant.
Many speakers at the even emphasized
that bigger towns, such as Oklahoma City
and Tulsa, have other colleges in competition
for their fan base.
In Durant, there is an opportunity to become
a school color-covered town so when
visitors come, there is no doubt that there
is a college here and that the residents and
businesses are proud of it.
The True Blue Durant CommUNITY
shirts are available at the campus Barnes &
Noble.
First United Bank sponsored a hot dog
dinner for the event. Southeastern alumni
James Harrington and Shane Patterson from
First United manned the barbecue grill.
Joe Hill, a Southeastern graduate who
works for Congressman Dan Boren, introduced
many of the speakers and led the attendees
onto the field before the scrimmage.