GILBERT, Ariz. — Perry High School got a special delivery: 3,200 'Brock Nation' t-shirts. All of them were made to celebrate their hometown hero, Brock Purdy.
It took two days of printing, said Kyle Narducci. He's a 2011 Perry High School grad and now he's the owner of Heart and Hook Apparel.
"We were trying to come up with like a balance between Super Bowl stuff, Perry High School, and Brock," Narducci said showing off one of the t-shirts specifically designed for the occasion: A Perry High School Alumni playing in Super Bowl LVIII.
Brock Purdy, a 2018 graduate of Perry High School in Gilbert, is now the San Francisco 49ers quarterback.
"The minute he won the NFC championship, I mean our phone, my phone started blowing up," Perry High School Principal Heather Patterson said.
Since that time, Narducci has been wanting to give back to the Perry Pumas in a special way.
"It's all about building camaraderie and, you know, a sense of community here at Perry," he said.
Narducci realized he wanted to get into the apparel business after printing up shirts at home to help support his student council campaign during his time at the school.
While talking about the idea for the shirts with Narducci, Patterson thought just a few hundred shirts would be donated for the staff.
"I said, 'OK, so they'll be done by Friday, all the shirts?'," Patterson said. "And he goes, 'Well, it's gonna take me a while to run a few 1000 shirts.' And I said, 'Kyle, who is this for? And he said, 'This is for the entire Perry community staff and students.' And I just had - I literally just didn't have anything to say for once."
'It's Brock Nation'
The marquee out front of the high school has two slides in its rotation cheering on Purdy. His trophies are temporarily moved up to the front desk in the front office, and the school is hosting a "Purdy Madness Spirit Week" ahead of the big game.
"It's Brock Nation," Patterson said. "It has been a Brock takeover."
Patterson notes Purdy's character, and how he embodies the motto of Perry High School: Pride, Progress, Purpose.
"It's not only a game for Brock, that's how we are framing it. It's really a game for our community, and we're all behind him. And I know that he knows that, but he's a great kid," Patterson said.
It's two alumni that are making this week extra special, she said.
"When you have this perfect storm of graduates coming together, from different years, to help each other, be successful, and then for both of these graduates, you know, Brock, and Kyle, to help kids here on so many different levels. It's just a great experience," Patterson said.
The students received the shirts Thursday to wear the shirts for Friday's final spirit day ahead of Sunday's game.
"It's something that not a lot of schools get to experience... I mean, to have a graduate go to the Super Bowl and hopefully win — yeah, we're praying that they win — is a special moment that is, I think, a once in a lifetime thing," Narducci said.
Brock Purdy Way
The Chandler Unified School District temporarily renamed Perry Puma Drive to Brock Purdy Way.
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