During football season in the fall, Crawford County R-2 Board of Education President Jennifer Moreland made a Facebook post requesting the community wear black and gold on Fridays in support of Wildcat athletes and its student body. Afterward, numerous community members reached out to her in support of the idea and one asked if it would be possible to get a shirt representing Wildcat pride in the hands of every student supporting the cause. 

Doug’s Shirt Shack, a local t-shirt printer, offered to cover the cost of the ink. All five banks in Cuba, including Peoples Bank, First Community National Bank, Sullivan Bank, Maries County Bank and Riverways Credit Union all pledged donations to get the project in motion. Two other anonymous donors also contributed and 1,200 shirts were printed. Every district student in kindergarten through 12th grade received one.  

Moreland credited lifelong Cuba resident and former district teacher Sandy Stewart for implementing the phrase ‘Once a Wildcat, Always a Wildcat.’ She thought that the phrase should be printed on the shirts. 

Moreland’s daughter, Lexi Moreland, a 2024 graduate of Cuba High School, now enrolled at Missouri S&T, created the design for shirts, which was unanimously approved by all involved. 

Moreland says that she hopes that people in the community will get behind the idea and wear the shirts as well, which are available to all at Doug’s Shirt Shack. Purchasers don’t have to be a Cuba alumni to get the shirts or to support the Wildcats. 

“How cool would it be to walk into every bank, every restaurant, every gas station, every business in the town of Cuba on a Friday, and everybody is standing behind the Wildcats and supporting them by wearing the black and gold,” she asked.

Students received the shirts on Feb. 5, and Moreland says that it means a lot to her that she’s already been seeing students wearing them all over town. 

“I was sitting in the parking lot on Friday, the day after we gave the shirts out, waiting to pick up my son, and there were so many kids wearing their shirts,” Moreland said. “It was so cool because it was a nice day and a lot of kids weren’t wearing a coat, so I could see all of them. Obviously there was excitement behind it, because when we came to the Courtwarming game that night, there were a lot of kids wearing their shirts to the game. I was in Walmart in Sullivan on Saturday, and I saw a family who had two or three kids who were all wearing their shirts. And so just to see that kids were wearing them and wearing them in the community proudly, that’s all that you can hope for.”

Moreland concluded by saying that she is hopeful the shirts help all students in Cuba celebrate their Wildcat pride, not just those who play sports. 

“You don’t have to be involved in a sport to have school spirit, just being a student is something to be proud of. That should be an exciting thing, to say ‘I go to Cuba’. I want our community to be proud of our school, and I want our school to be proud of our community.”