Ray Davis earned a bunch of national honors with his play against Florida and now has his own T-shirts for sale. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Former Kentucky All-American Jack Givens wanted Goose21Tees to be something different and something that Kentucky fans could enjoy. He’s working with Tim Seeburger and after John Calipari’s basketball team went to Canada and won four games they came out with four UK T-shirts — Canada Cats, Cats United States, America’s Team, and USA Cats — to commemorate the wins.
When Maui was hit with the devastating fire, they brought out a Maui Strong/Kentucky Cares T-shirt with proceeds going to fire victims.
Now they have their first NIL deal and it is with Kentucky record-setting running back Ray Davis thanks to some help from UK fan Joni Fowler, who has been doing NIL projects with UK football player at the Scott County Humane Society adoption events that have helped the facility already double adoptions this year over 2022.
“Jack, Tim, and I were talking about trying to find a way so the kids can keep more of their merchandise sales,” Fowler said. “They just don’t yield much from the big companies. This is also a way to do NIL that doesn’t take time away from practice/game prep.”
That led to Goose21tees.com announcing a NIL partnership with Davis that will give fans a chance to purchase three different Davis-themed blue T-shirts and they should be popular after his 280-yard, four-touchdown performance against Florida last week. One T-shirt has Run Ray on the front and another one has Davis 1 with a football.
However, the likely most popular T-shirt uses the quote Davis had after the Florida game that resonated with everyone: “I want to thank God, and then the Big Blue Wall.”
Davis won the Doak Walker Award, the Maxwell Trophy Player of the Week, the Walter Camp National FBS Offensive Player of the Week, and the Southeastern Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Week for his play against Florida and was also named the Senior Bowl National Player of the Week and the East/West Shrine Bowl Breakout Offensive Player of the Week.
Proceeds from sale of the T-shirts at http://goose21tees.com will benefit Davis.
“I kind of pitched the idea to Jack and Tim when Jack and I were talking about ways to help support the athletes that do not directly involve sponsorship,” Fowler said. “Kids all want to do T-shirts. They can have more ownership and drive their own sales.”
Davis will be part of a special event at the Scott County Humane Society Oct. 21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on UK football’s open date. Joining Davis will be UK star linebacker Trevin Wallace from noon-2 p.m while volleyball players Megan Wilson and Elise Goetzinger will be there from 2-3 p.m.
“It’s an adopt-a-thon we do once a year and I thought Ray would be a really good draw,” Wilder said. “I also knew Trevin would be great to pair with him and I thought it would be nice to get some volleyball players involved and Megan and Elise both volunteered to help.”
Fowler hopes Givens and Seeburger can fill a void left by the passing of former UK quarterback Jared Lorenzen. He started a T-shirt company — Throwboy Tees — in 2015 before his passing in 2019.
“Jared was really good at making a funny, catchy T-shirt after a big game or great quote and having it for sale within a week,” Fowler said. “We’ve not had that since his passing. If something happens and goes viral we need to let the kids be able to take advantage of that.
“We want to do things to help kids advance and learn about business and life. That’s really important to me.
