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Papa John’s honors Cards with pizza box

photo via cardchronicle.com

photo via cardchronicle.com

The Papa John’s pizza chain is honoring the 2013 NCAA Champion Louisville Cardinals with their own specially-designed pizza box.

But wait! I can almost hear Big Blue Nation shouting: where was our pizza box when we won it all in 2012? Well, since Papa John’s is based in Louisville, this all makes a certain amount of sense.

It’s the classic “while supplies last” type of publicity stunt, but I’d imagine a LOT of pizza is flying out of the Louisville-area chains today. As Mike Rutherford of Card Chronicle wrote: “Am I framing mine and hanging it on my wall? Not sayin’ I’m not.”

It’s actually a rather handsome box, so I hope area delivery drivers are being tipped very well when the pie arrives with all grease, cheese and toppings still on the pizza and not soaking into the gallery-worthy slab of ridged cardboard.

The pizza joint’s founder had a few words to say in his press release announcing the launch of the new box.

“We are excited to roll out this special pizza box to honor the outstanding achievements of the University of Louisville men’s basketball team,” said John Schnatter, Papa John’s founder, chairman and CEO. “With Papa John’s headquarters based in Louisville, it was exciting to watch our hometown Cards win the national championship, which was the pinnacle of what was an incredible year for U of L athletics.”

This could be an exciting trend. National mega-chain Pizza Hut had humble beginnings in Wichita, Kansas - imagine what they could have done if the Shockers had won two more games last season? Menacing Wushock on a limited-edition whole-wheat crust, topped with beef and cheese from locally-raised cows. Mmmmm. Eat Angry.

If you want one of these, and don’t live in the Louisville area, perhaps you can call a friend, buy him the pizza, and keep the box? Better yet, order 100 pies, give the contents to a local homeless shelter, and sell the collector’s boxes on eBay. Everybody wins.

Eric Angevine is the editor of Storming the Floor. He tweets @stfhoops.