‘Wichita Staty Universite’ gaffe memorialized on T-shirts, mugs

The typo was quickly fixed in real life, but now it will forever live on.

The unfortunate typo on the Wichita State University water tower that made national news Friday – when onlookers were welcomed to “Wichita Staty Universite” – is being turned into a fundraiser for the Wichita Orpheum Theatre.

Late Thursday, city crews painting a refresh of the university’s water tower accidentally transposed the “Y” and the “E” in “state” and “university.” By Friday afternoon, the typo – which was quickly corrected Friday – had already been seen in national news outlets like USA Today and ESPN2.

Humans of Wichita, a popular local Facebook page, has created T-shirts and coffee mugs to sell, featuring the infamous spelling blunder. The merchandise was quickly turned around – coming online Saturday, just a day after the typographical faux pas.

According to page admininstrator Dalton Sanders, all profits from sales of the merchandise will be donated to the Orpheum. The Orpheum was chosen as the recipient of the funds because of its air-conditioning woes from earlier this summer, Sanders said.

“The Orpheum needs more attention,” Sanders said. “It's one of the last great historic theaters that we have in Wichita.”

Sanders said his “biggest thing was I didn’t want to make any profit off of it.”

As of Monday afternoon, about $360 had been raised, Sanders said.

T-shirts start at $16 and coffee mugs are $13.

To get yours, go to www.humansofict.com.

This story was originally published August 7, 2017 at 1:48 PM.