I was sending that email out this morning to the alumni who had contacted us about jerseys, and I was thinking what a good thing it was that people could graduate from UND and then still be able to represent the school while they actually participated in a sport--I know lots of people own hockey jerseys and such, but they mostly wear them to watch games or to cheer on the teams, not to actually play hockey. We have an opportunity to connect with alumni in a way many other teams and clubs do not, because many people like to ride and are able to long after they graduate.
I was thinking about what we could do about this, especially in a way that would let us connect with some of the alumni who want to buy jerseys. I think it would be possible to have some event during Homecoming that would let us make this connection since there will be a lot of alumni on campus, many with families and many of whom may want to make a connection with the current students. Rather than having a boring old "eat brunch with the hockey team" or "get your football signed by the football team after the game," we could have a "Ride with the cycling team" event where we could meet up with anyone who wants to go on a road ride (or a bike path ride, or both) and chat them up (fully kitted out, of course). Cyclists are cyclists, so rather than awkwardly talking to us about how they love us and think we're great because they like watching the team win, we could talk to them about bicycles and riding and whatever.
If we got on this early enough (in the next month or so I suppose), we'd be able to have this be an official part of homecoming weekend with all the publicity that entails, all through the alumni organization (whatever they're called). It wouldn't be that hard (on the day of), we could meet some new people, and we could potentially get some new supporters, all while looking decidedly pro.