Preserving the Excitement of JMU GameDay: Special Collections Wins Award for Archiving the 2015 and 2017 JMU GameDay Signs

Posted November 13, 2023 in JMU Libraries News, Special Collections News

A College GameDay sign that reads, 'Don't bring a cat 2 a dog fight' and has two images of the JMU mascot, the Duke Dog. — One of the 2017 signs in the online archive

Get ready, Dukes, because College GameDay is coming back to JMU!

And guess what? You can relive the excitement of past GameDays with an award-winning archive! Thanks to the hard work of our Special Collections team, signs from the 2015 and 2017 GameDays have been digitized and preserved for all to see. You can even make an appointment to view the signs in person.

This collection was so impressive that its collection guide (or finding aid) won an award from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference in 2022, with the guide being praised for its ability to serve as a model for collections of ephemeral material. Tiffany Cole, Kate Morris, and Bodeene Amyot Cairdeas, all of JMU Libraries Special Collections, worked on this archive along with graduate student assistants Mariam Ismail, Grace Thomsen, and Kayleigh Bishop.

If you want your 2023 GameDay sign to be remembered for generations to come, donate it to the archive! Before you leave the Quad on Saturday, November 18, drop your sign at the JMU Libraries booth by Moody Hall, any time 10am to 2pm.

Go Dukes!