Avery MedinaAn Ohio baseball team brought out community members wearing Hawaiian shirts to a Tuesday evening game in an unsuccessful attempt to earn a spot among the Guinness World Records.
The Southern Ohio Copperheads in Athens tried to create the largest gathering of people wearing Hawaiian shirts in one place but fell hundreds of shirts short of the official record. Jake Lietzow, the executive director for the team, said 606 people showed up to the game wearing Hawaiian shirts out of approximately 1,100 people in attendance.
The current record for the most amount of Hawaiian shirts worn in one location is 1,254, set during an ice hockey game last year.
The record attempt in Athens coincided with Ohio Brew Week, an annual celebration in the college town of craft breweries around the state. Ohio Brew Week organizers schedule a day during the week of events to encourage people to wear Hawaiian shirts in honor of a founder of Ohio Brew Week.
The Southern Ohio Cooperheads kicked off the Tuesday game with a “Beach Day” theme, playing humorous walk up songs for players and holding contests between innings.
Jeff Kuhn, a 16-year Athens resident and staff member at Ohio University, said the record attempt showed “a community where people do things together.”
“The Tuesday of brew week is always, like, Hawaiian shirt day,” Kuhn said.
Liam Niemeyer contributed to this report.
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Grace Siener