FARGO — The post-high school life of Michael McCarty included boxing, with a membership at a gym in Alexandria, Minn., and eight amateur bouts. He shelved that in favor of school for a year and a half at Minnesota State Moorhead but decided that wasn’t for him, either. He worked construction for four years.
After all that, it was time to go back to his first love: drawing. It was always a goal to build or design something; he just didn’t know what it was.
Then came college football’s name, image, likeness ruling that changed the landscape of players and their ability to make money. The light bulb went off in McCarty’s head.
“I’ve always had this affinity for graphics and art,” he said.
That affinity turned into his own business: MCM Graphics. Now a Moorhead resident, he will unveil his North Dakota State football player “mini-posters” this season. It’s no overnight process; he’s been working on the project for over a year.
“I’ve been fighting for this for so long and I’m excited to actually bring my vision to the world,” he said.
The newness is in the autograph market of Bison players for fans to collect. They come in packs with some being random and some being numbered. The NDSU players will get a percentage of each one sold.
The launch is set for Sept. 1 and he’s expecting them to be available at Scheels. McCarty also has hopes of having some sort of booth at NDSU football games at the Fargodome starting with the Sept. 7 home opener against Tennessee State.
One pack of mini-posters retails for $40.
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There’s more than mini-posters in the works. He plans on having a 3D look of quarterback Cam Miller behind the Bison offensive line in a glass-enclosed case. Those are currently a work in progress.
“Hopefully they can bring home another championship so I can have them raising the trophy,” McCarty said.
It took about a year for McCarty to work through the licensing process from the university in obtaining approval to use the logos. That includes proof of insurance, reveal of a business plan and product samples.
“It was a lot of back and forth, it’s pretty new to them as it is for me,” he said.
The process is pretty standard, said NDSU senior associate athletic director Troy Goergen, with the exception of the NIL component that requires a separate license. NDSU in turn referred McCarty to Collegiate Licensing Company, which handles the Bison license in terms of paperwork, applications and royalty collection.
McCarty most likely couldn’t call his product a trading card since Topps has an exclusive agreement with college football, including NDSU.
McCarty did his own photo shoot with eight players over the summer with Miller, running backs Barika Kpeenu and TK Marshall, safety Cole Wisniewski, receivers RaJa Nelson and Braylon Henderson, defensive end Loshiaka Rocques and defensive tackle Eli Mostaert. The ninth will be Thundar the mascot and that will comprise the first set.
“The players were awesome, they were super nice,” McCarty said.
He has plans to eventually expand his business to players from the University of Minnesota, South Dakota State and the University of North Dakota. The surface is mainly paper with various looks of laminated cards including a cracked ice look. They are 3½ inches by 4½.
McCarty isn’t new to aligning with the college football market and his venture is purposely different from so many others chasing the apparel market.
“I know 10 other people who are trying to do T-shirts,” he said. “I wanted to stand out a little bit.”
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Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough” and “Covid Kids.” He is the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.
