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U OK leads in themed coffin sales
(This also mentions GLO-themed caskets - anybody know more?)
Sooner born, Sooner dead
A Georgia casket company sells more OU coffins than any other school.
by Brianna Bailey
October 13, 2005
U Okla. newsp.
____The Sooners may have slid from the top-ranking spot in the polls this football season, but Oklahoma fans can find solace in the fact that OU is still No. 1 at something — casket sales.
____As the song says: OU fans are Sooner born and Sooner bred. Now they can also be Sooner dead.
____Collegiate Memorials, based in Forsyth, Ga., has been making college-themed caskets for die-hard college sports fans and alumni since 2000. The caskets, available in wood or steel, bear the school colors and insignia.
____The OU-themed casket, which Collegiate Memorials began producing in 2001, is the company’s top seller this year, said Scott Walston, Collegiate Memorials president. Walston estimates the company has sold 50 OU caskets in the past year.
____“The caskets are a great way to pay homage to someone, it’s something that’s been personalized,” Walston said.
____Walston said he came up with the idea for the school-spirited caskets by thinking outside of the box. Working in casket sales and distribution, he noticed caskets that reflected people’s personalities sold better.
____“The three things people tell you when you meet them are what they do, who they’re married to and where they went to school,” Walston said.
Goin Out in Style
• Cost of an OU- themed casket: $4,595.
• The OU casket features: 18-gauge steel in a crimson color, hand-sewn silver-white velvet interior.
• The OU insignia is stamped on the inside of the headpiece.
• OU collects an 8 percent royalty fee on each casket sale.
Source: Shane Vice, funeral director, Resthaven Memory Gardens and Jennifer Jernsted, director of university services for the Collegiate Licensing Company.
____Walston began by approaching the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology about producing caskets bearing their respective insignias.
____“We have some very devoted college sports fans here,” Walston said.
____Five years later, Collegiate Memorials has designs for 46 schools across the country and 18 sororities and fraternities.
____Walston said he doesn’t know why the OU casket has sold particularly well this year, but it sells well consistently. Rounding out the top four best sellers are Alabama, Kentucky and Auburn.
____“It’s not just a sports thing, and we’ve buried just as many women as men,” Walston said.
____Is OU making lucrative amounts of cash from casket sales? Not exactly, said Jennifer Jernstedt, director of university services for the Collegiate Licensing Company, who handles the licensing of the OU logo.
____Jernstedt said she was not permitted to release how much OU has made from casket sales, but said it was “not a significant amount,” compared to profits from T-shirts and other OU memorabilia. OU collects an 8 percent royalty fee from each casket sale, she said.
____“It’s amazing what people can think of to put a college logo on,” Jernstedt said. “From the cradle to the grave, there are some people who are very devoted to the crimson and cream.”
____Resthaven Memory Gardens in Oklahoma City was one of the first funeral homes to carry the OU-themed caskets, said Shane Vice, Resthaven Memory Gardens funeral director.
____The funeral home’s floor sample, an 18-gauge crimson steel casket with a hand-sewn white velvet lining bearing the OU Insignia in the headpiece, always attracts attention, Vice said.
____“People see it and their jaws drop, or they say ‘that would be perfect for so-and-so,’” Vice said.
____OSU Cowboy fans usually say “Where’s the orange one?,” Vice said.
____In fact, Resthaven used to carry a mahogany casket with the Oklahoma State University insignia printed on the inside lid of the casket, but it never sold.
____“We ended up taking out the headpiece with the OSU logo out of it and selling it as a regular casket,” Vice said.
____Younger people are particularly attracted to the OU casket, while older Sooner fans continue to prefer a more understated look, Vice said. Many Sooner faithfuls purchase the OU caskets for themselves, in what is called a “pre-need” sale, Vice said.
____“I guess they’re just really big OU fanatics,” Vice said. “I think its something that will grow in popularity,” Vice said.
____While hundreds of students can be seen on campus each day donning OU apparel of all kinds, some say it’s possible to have a little too much school spirit.
____ Ginger Burgoon, Russian and linguistics senior, said although she owns several articles of OU clothing, including T-shirts and sweat pants, the OU-themed casket takes it too far.
____“I can see someone who has really strong ties to the university having one, but it’s just bizarre,” Burgoon said.
____Andrew Sanders, University College sophomore, owns 10 OU T-shirts and follows OU sports closely, but said he wouldn’t consider buying an OU casket.
____“I don’t know anyone who’s that much of a fan,” Sanders said.
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