`Refuse To Lose' Catchy Battle Cry But Not Exactly An Original One

Refuse to lose.

Simple, catchy, tripping off the tongue as the perfect sports slogan should. Why didn't someone think of this before?

Someone did.

The Mariners' playoff motto isn't an original. "You mean the motto the Mariners borrowed," says Bill Strickland, sports-information director at the University of Massachusetts.

"Refuse to lose" has been the battle cry of UMass' nationally ranked basketball teams for several years, he said: Coach John Calipari "blurted it out at a post-game press conference a couple years ago, and everyone just picked up on it."

It also was a motto for Eatonville High School's 1992 state Class A football champions. "I remember us using it," said George Fairhart, then an assistant, now head coach, "but I don't know where we got it. I just thought it was a common phrase."

All this was news yesterday to Mark Schupisser, the Redmond entrepreneur who claims a proprietary interest.

Schupisser says he and his girlfriend painted and hung the "Refuse to Lose" banner that first appeared over center field in the Kingdome Sept. 24. His company, Never Quit Sportsgear, was the first - at least locally - to market T-shirts with the slogan.

Schupisser said he has filed papers to register "Refuse to Lose" as a company trademark. He said he has tried - unsuccessfully - to get other manufacturers to stop using the phrase.

Never Quit produced the first "Refuse to Lose" T-shirt last February, before the Mariners' dream season even started. "It came from watching a ball game," Schupisser said of the motto's origin. "I heard something, and it just popped."

A UMass basketball game? Schupisser said he doesn't remember.

Strickland, the UMass spokesman, said he thinks Coach Calipari already has the rights to "Refuse to Lose" for a clothing line with which he's affiliated.

Schupisser seemed unaffected by the news. "We'll just have to negotiate with them," he said.