Bulldog Nation has business booming for Starkville stores as they buy up Diamond Dawgs national championship merchandise

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – After the Diamond Dawgs made history in Omaha by bringing home the College World Series title, Mississippi State fans have been out making sure they bring home as much championship memorabilia as they can.

“It’s been crazy,” said McKensi Lashy, a cashier at the Lodge in Starkville. “We’ve had people from all over. We’ve had people from Atlanta, we’ve had people from Texas coming in, buying 20 t-shirts at a time.”

Bulldog Nation has business booming for retailers all over the city as they buy up all the College World Series and national championship gear they can find.

“This is my five today,” said MSU fan Trish Bounds, gesturing to her shopping bag. “I am waiting on text messages for other sizes. I’ll probably (get) about eight or nine total. A lot of shirts.”

She says those are all in addition to the ones she’s bought for herself.

In his more than 40 years as owner of the Lodge, John Hendricks says he has only seen this much of a demand for Maroon and White gear during the 1996 Final Four season and when Dak Prescott and the football team ranked number one in the country.

“With the World Series championship, we decided we would close Independence Day but we needed to be open today for customers,” he says. “And so far, it’s looking as if that decision was correct because we’ve been pretty busy.”

Lodge employees said that both Friday and Saturday, they had a line stretching from the register at the front of the store all the way around to the back of the store.

“I didn’t leave this counter all day,” Lashy says.

Lashy, who is also an MSU student, says she even has family and friends asking her for OmaDawg apparel.

“My boyfriend, I have family in Phoenix that are State fans, they all wanted so many shirts and I told them, ‘I’m just too busy to grab shorts for them,'” she says.

Hendricks says they received over 5,000 pieces of merchandise Friday and are getting more every day.

“We have World Series commemorative baseballs coming in that aren’t here yet, we have flags, banners and all that coming in that aren’t here yet,” he said. “We have panoramic pictures of Omaha that aren’t here yet.”

He expects the store to have new items coming in all through next week.

“Bulldog Nation has waited a long time for this,” Bounds says. “We’re excited.”

In addition to all of the in-store sales, Lodge employees tell WCBI they’ve gotten at least 900 other orders online or via phone call.

Working with a smaller summer staff, Hendricks has praised his employees for stepping up to meet the high demand for their championship gear.