Nov 29, 2007 10:20 am US/Central
Romo's High School Football Jersey Is Big Seller
KIMBERLY, Wis. (AP) ―
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Quarterback Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys drops back to pass against the Washington Redskins at Texas Stadium Nov. 18, 2007 in Irving, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Dallas quarterback Tony Romo's high school is cashing in, along with a sports merchandising firm, as his team prepares for its showdown with the Green Bay Packers Thursday night.
Among the items sold by Createch, Inc., of Kimberly is a 1990s era Burlington High School football jersey with Romo's name and prep number 16.
Romo was quarterback for Burlington, in southeastern Wisconsin, as a junior and senior before moving on to Eastern Illinois University and then to Dallas of the NFL.
The athletic director at Burlington High School, whose name happens to be Eric Burling, said several thousand dollars worth of the jerseys were ordered this week alone.
Among the buyers were Burlington fans leaving in a group for Dallas. They got express delivery to make sure they would be sporting the orange and black school colors in Texas Stadium.
Burling said demand picked up last year once Romo solidified his starting status and wore a Burlington High School T-shirt during postgame interviews.
The school re-created the retro T-shirt and then went to work on the jersey.
Sales cooled somewhat and then picked up again when Romo returned to Wisconsin for a camp in June.
The success of Green Bay as well as Dallas in achieving 10-1 records so far this season has led to a media frenzy before this week's game, and it's reflected in demand for the jerseys.
"It's really picked up in the last two weeks," Burling said.
Burlington High School teamed with Createch to sell school logo items through the company's Linx program. Createch maintains a school store Web site, sells the items and returns a portion of the earnings to the schools from each sale.
The school store reports it's had orders for the Romo jersey from the Dallas area, across the country and as far away as France.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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