The closest opens to a shelf covered with many kinds of hats. The closet being looked at is the closet of hat collector senior Tyler Mitchem.

“I started collecting ball caps in middle school,” Mitchem said.

Mitchem started collecting hats because it was something different. He has over 23 hats sitting in his closet and around the house.

“I have different hats that go with costumes, plus seven Nebraska ball caps,” Mitchem said.

To total up all of the hats he has, Mitchem had to count with both hands, more than once. He has a Mickey Mouse hat, an Elmer Fudd hat, a cowboy hat, a Flintstones hat and a sailor hat.

“I got to wear his Elmer Fudd hat,” junior Colton Hege said. “It made me feel special.”

Mitchem also owns a Nebraska flat bill and several other ball caps.

“My favorite hat is my sailor one because no one else has one and I do wear it,” Mitchem said.

Mitchem wears his hats out in public, even though some of them are costume hats.

“I grab whatever hat I can,” Mitchem said. “I’ll grab a red hat if I’m wearing black for contrast.”

Collecting all the hats Mitchem owns has taken him a few years. He received his first hat when he was five. It used to be his uncle’s old cowboy hat, but it broke.

“I don’t own it anymore,” Mitchem said.

His favorite memory dealing with hats was when he was still living in Nebraska. Mitchem’s friend helped him buy a flat bill. Mitchem paid him back in all nickels and dimes. His friend was not at all happy with this repayment.



Mitchem gets his hats as presents, but he also buys them. Right now he wants a black Texas flat bill or an all-white Yankees flat bill.

“If I don’t get a hat, I’ll go out and buy it,” Mitchem said.

Mitchem started collecting hats on his own, but his dad owns some also.

“My dad has a wide assortment of hats,” Mitchem said. “(He owns) Goofy ones, and sometimes he’ll hand them down to me. I get another inappropriate one when I go to college.”