If you are looking for the perfect West Virginia University Nokia Sugar Bowl souvenirwhy not a sugar bowl?

By special arrangement with the Homer Laughlin China Co., and the Nokia Sugar Bowl, the Friends Gift Shop at West Virginia University Hospitals will offer a limited edition Fiestaware sugar bowlemblazoned with the logo of the University on one side and the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl on the other.

The bowls will match perfectly with other Fiesta patterns, including the WVU -themed dinner plates, chop plates, mugs, pitchers and tool crocks sold exclusively through the Friends Gift Shop and its online store,www.wvuhgift.com. All sales will benefit projects that improve services to hospital patients and their families.

The other Fiesta products, introduced this year, have been a huge hit with Mountaineer fans. Many have stopped at the hospital gift shoplocated only a few dozen yards from the University’s football stadiumto load up on the heavy china items before every home game this year.

“I expect we will sell out of Nokia Sugar Bowl sugar bowls before kickoff,”says gift shop manager Pat Antion. The shop will take paid-in-advance orders only, for delivery early in 2006, she said. It will take several weeks for Homer Laughlin’s manufacturing plant in Newell, W.Va., to produce the items.

The Nokia Sugar Bowl sugar bowl will cost $31.50. The gift shop will provide numbered certificates of authenticity to accompany each bowl.

Fiestaware is used and collected all over the world. The china was designed by Frederick Hurton Rhead in 1936. As originally designed, the line featured art deco styling and bold, bright colors.

The Mountaineer Fiesta collection was designed by Antion and her son, Whinston. The two have donated their rights to the design to the Friends so that all sales will benefit future patients at the hospitals. Paul Zelenka of Homer Laughlin proposed the sugar bowls in a burst of Mountaineer pride after the football team clinched the 2005 Big East title.

“This is the first commemorative piece we’ve done, but it won’t be the last,”Antion said.”If we get into the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl next year, watch out.”