University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 26, April 10


            UD license plates a hit; Maryland now on board
     
     The sale of University of Delaware license plates has
raised more than $42,000 in scholarship money since they
first went on sale little more than a year ago, Robert R.
Davis, alumni and University relations, said.
     In fact, sales within the state of Delaware have been
so successful that the alumni office is now offering
Maryland state tags featuring the popular interlocking UD
design, Davis said.
     One reason the plates are so popular, he noted, is that
owners can choose any four digits to customize a tag.
     For Jeannie Miles, alumni and University relations,
that means hearing a lot of endearing stories.
     "My favorite is the new father who came rushing in to
get a license plate with the birthdate of his firstborn,"
Miles said. "And, there is one man who ordered a plate with
a number that is also on his father's original [black] state
tag as well as on his brother's fireman's tag."
     Several alumni and UD employees have license plates
with their wedding dates on them, and one couple has two
plates-one for the year they got engaged and one for the
year they got married. Couples who are Double Dels (married
alumni) may get a tag with their graduation years, say
UD8485 and then reverse them to UD8584 on the second plate.
Some former football players have plates displaying their
uniform numbers.
     People who have earned two degrees at UD often order
tags with numbers composed of both degree years.
     University President David P. Roselle's tag is UD
1743-the date of the University's founding.
     Tags with numbers to mark graduation years went fast,
Miles said. "We're sold out through the year 2005. The years
1977, 1970 and 1953 are still left and there are a few years
available in the '40s and '30s."
     All of this means that those ordering tags risk being
identified by Miles as she drives around the state.
     "I was behind someone going so slow the other day. I
meant to check the list and see who that was," she joked.
     The tag bearing UD 1 went to Hockessin dentist Alfred
B. Brown, Delaware '59, who submitted the highest bid for
that number when the plates first went on sale last
February. Brown also purchased tags with the numbers UD5,
UD10, UD18, UD20 and UD23 and paid a total of $7,230.
     While the UD1 plate was going on the back of Brown's
own Mercedes Benz, he said he would divide the other plates
among himself and his sons, two of whom also are UD
graduates.
     That auction raised more than $27,000 for scholarships,
and Miles said there was a line of people waiting to
purchase plates at the alumni office the next business day.
     Davis said the Maryland tags are being marketed to
alumni in that state, then to parents of current students
and to employees who live in Maryland. Cost for a Delaware
plate is $50 and the Maryland plate will cost $55.
     To order Delaware tags or to inquire about Maryland
tags, contact the Office of Alumni and University Relations
at 831-2341 or via e-mail at PLATE@mvs.udel.edu
                                                -Beth Thomas