By Frances Allday

While standing in a checkout line at Walgreens the other day, I noticed a display of miniature football helmets on a counter with the emblems of UT, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. These are all well known universities, of course, but I noticed that no local school was represented. A young couple in line behind me picked one up and commented to each other that they were cute, but why didn't they ever see anything with a University of Houston emblem. I assume they had attended UH.

Then I remembered a visitor to Houston who told me about driving south on I-45 past downtown, and noticing a green exit sign that said University of Houston. Curious to see this university with Houston's name, he exited the freeway and turned right onto Cullen. To his surprise he was greeted by a stone sculpture at the entrance of a long boulevard lined with lamp posts draped in red UH flags. Before him was 550 acres of sprawling campus, massive buildings interspersed with greenery and spacious parking lots. He realized he had stumbled upon a very large university right in the middle of the city, with only a traffic sign pointing the way.

If a visitor doesn't travel south on I-45, will he see other references to the University of Houston in the city? Will he see the UH emblem on sports and clothing items in stores? We did a survey of area stores to see if UH merchandise was on the shelves. Walgreens and CVS drug stores had no UH memorabilia, but one Walgreens had the UT, A&M, and Texas Tech miniature football helmets, and another Walgreens had A&M slippers and UT Longhorn towels. Walgreens says the store manager makes the decision what items to order.

A check of convenience store hat racks did not turn up any UH or Cougar caps. There were many that said "Texas" in orange. In fact, items with a UH emblem were nowhere to be seen among sports apparel in other retail outlets, either. There are many more stores that were not checked, but the point is that UH is largely ignored by stores in the city.

But I do wonder why a university that has been around for 80 years has to fight for recognition. UH has had some outstanding achievements in academics and athletics. Who hasn't heard of Elvin Hayes, Hakeem Alajawon, Clyde Drexler, Andre Ware, Doug Drabek, Woody Williams, and Carl Lewis, just to name a few.

In science, Professor Paul Chu has brought the university national recognition by his work in superconductivity. UH also has a highly rated college of law, and colleges of architecture, business, technology, and education which benefit the community at large. Many of its graduates remain in Houston to live and work in various professions. UH's contribution to the educational and economic life of Houston is undisputed.

The university with the Houston name deserves to be recognized and cheered on by all Houstonians (unless they are playing against your alma mater). So let's put more Cougar caps out on the shelves.