Coe College student in midst of jersey wearing marathon

Tom Wakeland hopes you'll notice his spiffy Portland Trailblazers jersey.

You might be well-advised, though, not to stand too close to him for the next few days.

The Coe College student has been wearing the jersey every day since Jan. 12, and plans to continue wearing it every day through Feb. 12. That would make 31 straight days – without laundering.

“It's pretty good still – a couple of stains from ketchup and ranch dressing,” said Wakeland, 20, a sophomore accounting major from Bettendorf. “It has kind of a smell, though, but it's not too bad.”

Wakeland said he's in the midst of the jersey-wearing marathon as part of a series of bets, mostly $5 to $10 each, with some of his soccer teammates at Coe.

“I'll probably end up with about $90 (from the bets),” said Wakeland, who plans to use the proceeds to buy a Valentine's Day gift for his girlfriend.

His girlfriend bought him the jersey, a replica of the jersey of star Trailblazers guard-forward Brandon Roy, as a Christmas present. She knows about the bet, he said, but she attends Western Illinois University, so she's unaffected by any possible – er – aromas.

“I don't see her very often,” Wakeland said, “so she probably doesn't care if it smells.”

Wakeland said under the terms of the bet, he's allowed to take off the jersey to sleep. He said he could also take off the jersey to wash it, but hasn't done so yet, and doesn't plan to. “I would have to be laying in my bed and have someone else wash it for me,” he said, laughing. “So basically, that's to deter me from washing it, so it gets all smelly and gross.”

What'll become of the jersey after Feb. 12? Wakeland said doesn't plan to wear it again, and doesn't plan to wash it after the month-long stunt.

“Maybe I can just kind of hang it up, and it'll be forever immortalized, I guess,” he said. “I was thinking of getting it framed, too, but that might be kind of expensive.”

And has anyone commented on seeing the same jersey on Wakeland every day? “No one has actually said it smells,” he said, “but a couple of people have asked me why I'm wearing the Brandon Roy jersey. They think I just like him a lot.”