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Oneida Textile Designs employee John Blackman worked on the production of the Syracuse University NCAA Championship T-shirts.

While Syracuse University fans were raising the roof on the Carrier Dome after the Orangemen captured the NCAA Men’s National Basketball Championship Monday night, employees at Oneida Textile Designs were firing up the shirt presses and preparing for a 14- to 16-hour shift making shirts to celebrate the title.

OTD, the Oneida Indian Nation’s textile printing enterprise, is one of several apparel printers contracted by Nike to print the championship shirts, which were available in stores around Central New York early Tuesday morning. The shirts bear the Nike "swoosh" logo over the words "National Champions", with the Syracuse University basketball logo.

There are several championship designs available on t-shirts, sweatshirts and baseball caps. The Nike design printed by OTD is being sold at JC Penney, Kaufmann’s and other area retailers.

Nike representatives arrived at OTD Sunday with boxes of blank shirts ready for printing. OTD’s contract with Nike calls for a minimum of 11,000 shirts, but Bill Lynch, OTD director of operations, said he expects his crew of 22 employees will print closer to 16,000 shirts today and Wednesday - maybe more, depending on reorders.

The finished product waits to be packaged and shipped out for sale.

Lynch, who told his employees to be prepared to work an overnight shift Monday if the Orangemen beat Texas in last Saturday’s semi-final game, said he was rooting for Syracuse anyway. The business deal with Nike just added another teaspoon of sugar to an already sweet victory, he said.

"This is a great thing all around. I’m happy for Syracuse, and I’m happy for us because we’re getting an opportunity to show a company of Nike’s stature what we can do for them", Lynch said. "This really is a great opportunity for us."

OTD, located on Route 5 in Sherrill, makes specialty screened and embroidered apparel and accessories for a variety of local and national clients, including AOL Time Warner, Racing Champions South and NASCAR Winston Cup drivers Jimmie Johnson, Ward Burton and Ricky Craven.