Staff Writer
With enough votes in his design’s favor, a Baylor alumnus may be the creator of The Dallas Mavericks jerseys for the 2015-16 season.
Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, started a contest in May for fans to design new jerseys for the team.
Fans had until the end of May to submit their designs. Since then, the top 10 designs have been selected by Cuban and are being voted on by fans. Baylor alumnus Geoff Case’s design is among those being voted on.
Case graduated from Baylor in 2004 with a major in telecommunications. Even before college, he said he always loved designing.
Case said he can recall creating designs for cars, video game characters or jerseys in throughout his adolescent years.
“I always had this idea for a Mavericks jersey in my head for about five or six years,” Case said. “I can remember drawing something similar on a notebook pad in high school.”
Case’s design features the Dallas skyline at the top of the jersey. He said this helps connect the team to its city of origin.
“I knew it was a good design, and I knew I had a shot of getting up there just because I knew kind of exactly what the Mavericks needed — something that could bridge the Mavericks to the community,” Case said. “Especially with how they are trying to revitalize downtown Dallas.”
Fan voting takes place online at Mavs.com/JerseyVote until Oct. 18. The winner will be revealed on Oct. 28.
In addition to design, Case said he has loved the Mavericks ever since he was little. While he was at Baylor, Case would go to places like Georges with friends that were also from Dallas to watch the games. His wife, Kristin Case said even the dog has a Mavs jersey.
“It’s an awesome opportunity for him,” Kristin said. “It’s not like you can buy this kind of opportunity. He has always loved designing t-shirts and we have always been Mavericks fans. For the first few years of our marriage he would go to almost all the games and sometimes drag me along.”
Upon spotting a blog entry by Cuban on Blog Maverick, Case said he did not hesitate to start designing. The entry titled “Help The Mavs Design Our Next Uniform!” was posted in May and invited fans to do just that.
Since that post, thousands of submitted designs have been narrowed down to 10. Case’s design is one of those.
“About a week ago I got a text while I was in Vegas for business from my dad that said ‘you know I think that jersey you showed me, I think it’s one of the ones that got posted,’” Case said. “It was about a day after it got posted and I didn’t even know it was up.”
With regard to payment for the award winning jersey, fame will outweigh the fortune. Cuban stated in his blog that upon posting a design, the Mavs own it. He went on to say that if the Mavs use the design, the designer gets eternal bragging rights. Aside from that, there is little reward involved.
Case said he is not in the contest for a monetary reward.
“The biggest prize for me would just be having an NBA jersey, not only in my portfolio, but it’s something I’m really passionate about,” Case said. “I mean, how many times can you say you were in the running with an NBA jersey?”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was edited to correctly identify Mark Cuban as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks not head coach as we incorrectly reported.
