A Lifetime of Tiger Pride: Alumni Spotlight, Jeremy Stinson
If you’ve purchased University of Memphis merchandise at a Tigers football game, chances are you’ve met Jeremy Stinson (BA ’02, MAT ’05), general manager for the Tiger Bookstore.
Although he began his career as an educator, a dad joke led Jeremy to his current career.
While meeting with a vendor for merchandise and apparel needs for the UofM band contest, Jeremy said, “My dad came up and made a joke about finding me a job and how he had to buy club level tickets and just having fun with him. And the next day, I happened to go by the business and the owner goes, ‘Was he being serious?’ And I said, ‘He likes to kid around and stuff like that.’ And he goes, ‘Well, if you need an offer, I’ll make you one.’”
Jeremy was hired.
Two months later he got to meet John Calipari, and he’s been promoting Tiger merchandise and apparel ever since.
Jeremy worked for and later owned the Tiger Gift Shop on Highland from 2007-14 before joining the Tiger Bookstore.
“I love being at the games. You see everybody, the excitement. Especially when they’re winning. It’s a lot of fun to me to be around that kind of atmosphere,” Jeremy said.
Jeremy can tell how well Tigers Athletics is doing based on the store’s sales.
“I’ll tell you in 2008 when we went to the Final Four, that was amazing,” he said.
He vividly remembers when the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team won the Elite Eight Game, defeating Texas 85–67 in the 2008 South Regional Elite Eight.
“I was at home watching the game and we had some kids working at the store. I watched the end of a little interview on the court and got in the car, drove up here to the store and I couldn’t get down Highland. Traffic was just everywhere. By the time I got up to the Highland Strip, Newby’s at the time had spilled out into the street. It was a block party.”
The demand for the T-shirts was so huge, that a police escort had to follow the delivery from Park and Highland to the store.
“The best part was all the people swarming this area. You’re running on fumes, but you are energized. What made it great was the fans reaching out to us and they didn’t complain that the lines were long. We had fans even bring us food,” Jeremy said.
Photo by Matthew A. Smith/The University of Memphis
He’s looking forward to it happening again one day.
“I know they always talk about how athletics is the front door to the University, and it really is,” he said.
Another thing Jeremy’s passionate about is the band.
Music has always been an integral part of Jeremy’s life. Since sixth grade, he’s played an instrument.
It was a band scholarship with the Mighty Sound of the South that led Stinson to enroll at the University of Memphis.
“I have a lot of family members that are rooting for the school on the other side of the state, and they were a little upset with me when I chose Memphis, but that’s OK,” Jeremy joked. “The school was affordable. I got a scholarship, and it just made sense.”
He was part of the Mighty Sound of the South when the late Dr. Sidney McKay served as director of bands, along with Dr. Marty Courtney.
This year, the band celebrates its 110-year anniversary.
Jeremy met his wife Tonia (BM ’00, MMU ’02, EDS ’14) in the band in 1997. He played the trombone and she played the trumpet. Next year, they’ll be celebrating their 24th wedding anniversary.
Now their two sons are members of the Mighty Sound of the South. Mason, a junior computer science major, plays the trumpet and Justin, a freshman music education major, plays the trombone.
Jeremy has championed the importance and impact that music and extracurriculars have on young people.
He credits the band for taking him all over the country including New York City when the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team reached the Final Four of the 2001 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and then again in 2002 when the Memphis Tigers won the 2002 National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
“We got to experience seeing New York going on top of the World Trade Center and then the next year, a group of us went back and saw Ground Zero,” he said. “Just seeing those things. I would never have gone to New York if it hadn’t been for the band, especially at that age.”
Some of his favorite songs to play when he was in the band are tied to Memphis’ musical heritage including songs by Elvis Presley and Booker T. & the M.G.’s.
He remembers when the band director had to stand on top of the field house to watch practice and practicing with the band five-days a week.
With the assistance of band alumni in the area, Jeremy leads and organizes the local band competition, The Bandmasters Championship, a premier scholastic marching band competition in the Mid-South. The competition dates back to the 1960s. In the late 1990s the University of Memphis Band Alumni Chapter stepped into a broader leadership role with the event.
“Ironically, I was a graduate student at the time, and Dr. McKay told me and my wife, ‘Come on, you’re going to an alumni meeting.’ And we went, and I think he sold us because they were having free food that night. It’s been 26 years later. And we’re still hanging around and doing things.”
The Bandmasters Championship draws 20-30 bands and an estimated attendance of 8,000 people or more. Their next event will be held Saturday, Nov. 7 at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.
“It’s fun, you know, and we use it on the band side as a recruiting tool, just to get kids on campus. I remember the first year that we did Bandmasters. I went to band camp at UofM when the kids showed up on campus, and we asked the question, ‘How many of you have marched in the UofM contest?’ And out of the 150 or so, only a few had actually participated,” Jeremy said. “You go ask that same question now, it’s most of the kids. I’d like to say we played a small part in the quality of the programs around the area that have gotten better. The high school bands because it is a little more competitive now, and some of those bands have even gone on to a national level.”
He highlighted Bartlett High School (both of his sons are alumni), a three-time Bands of America Grand National Semi Finalist, and two-time Band of America Regional Champion; and the Arlington High School Band who won the 2025 AA Grand National Champions, led by band alum Tim Simpson.
“It’s been fun going through the last so many years as a student, then as an alum, and now as a parent,” Jeremy said.
Although he won’t be performing with the band, Tigers fans can catch the 2026 Band Alumni performance during the Homecoming football game, and be sure to stop by and say hi to Jeremy at the merch booth.
