Grinchy and Bah Humbug. Two labels Queens head coach Grant Leonard has received from his wife and family members regarding his holiday spirit amidst the chaos of the college basketball season. What most people don’t know, however, is that the two words are at least partially responsible for Leonard’s sideline sweater movement, which has taken the nation by storm.
Leonard’s crazy sweaters originated as means of poking fun at his wife for her holiday-spirit criticism, but have grown into something much more.
“I started wearing these sweaters around to say, ‘Well, I do have holiday spirit,’” Leonard told Mid-Major Madness. “Then I wore one to a game, and I’ve been wearing them to games since I’ve been a head coach four years ago.”
The Grinch sweater, which marked Leonard’s debut of flashy fashion on the sideline, didn’t make national headlines, but it was memorable to him as the inaugural gameday sweater. In 2025-26, Queens’ first season eligible for the NCAA Tournament, Leonard’s sweaters broke through to the national spotlight, as the Royals made their first trip to the Big Dance.
In the true spirit of the holidays, Leonard made his sideline sweater season debut on Black Friday at Virginia. The Cavaliers won the game 94-69, but it was Leonard who garnered the media attention in the days following.
The reason? A Thanksgiving themed sweater with turkeys and pumpkins lining the arms, and a giant turkey and the phrase “Leftovers are for quitters” across the chest.
National attention wasn’t the driving force behind the attire choice, but it certainly influenced Leonard to keep the sweaters rolling.
“My family was at the game, and my brother was like, ‘Hey, do you know you just went viral?’ And I was like, ‘For what?’ He was like, ‘That sweater,’ and I was like, ‘No.’ And so I just kind of kept wearing them,” Leonard said.
It’s not entirely out of the ordinary for coaches to trade in quarter-zips for festive sweaters on occasion. After all, Greg Kampe and Tom Izzo have an ongoing sweater tradition for their regular December meetings. A few weeks after the game at Virginia, Leonard pulled out a Christmas sweater at Arkansas and went viral again. He began making a name for himself.
Months later, when Queens advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history, in its first eligible season, Leonard’s sweater game took to the national stage. Leonard had promised some local media members he’d wear a sweater if the Royals went dancing, and the Tournament game taking place a few days after St. Patrick’s Day was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up on.
Leonard chose a sweater that paid homage to his Irish and American roots. While it lacked the comedic appeal of the Thanksgiving and Christmas sweaters, it turned plenty of heads in Queens’ first dance on the biggest stage.
The holiday sweaters against high-major opponents weren’t the only three Leonard wore in 2025-26, but they’re his three most popular, he said. Thanks to his sweaters going viral this past season, he’s earned a new label in the college basketball world.
“I’ve gone down the road where I am the sweater guy now,” Leonard said. “To the point where I meet people at a PGA Tour golf tournament, and they want to take a picture and they’re like, ‘Why are you not in a sweater?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, it’s 90 degrees out.’”
It took just three sweaters going viral for Leonard to become college basketball’s sweater guy, but he had plenty of sweaters most of the nation didn’t see. Groundhogs beneath the light of the moon on Groundhog’s Day and a denim heart with roses up the sleeves on Valentine’s Day marked two more fun holiday sweaters. Most importantly to Leonard, however, sweaters are a way for him to support his players and their beliefs.
Two days prior to the aforementioned game at Arkansas, Leonard wore a sweater with a menorah front and center for the first day of Hanukkah. The result wasn’t him blowing up on the internet, but the response was particularly meaningful.
“There were a lot of people who reached out to me and said, ‘I didn’t know you were Jewish,’ and I was like, ‘I’m not,’” Leonard said. “But I respect the Jewish holiday and everybody’s right to have religious freedom. And they were like, ‘That’s amazing that you did that.’”
Interactions like those are what make being college basketball’s sweater guy special for Leonard. In addition to Hanukkah, he had sweaters for Kwanzaa and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and multiple for Black History Month. Any time he had a chance to stand for a cause bigger than himself through his sweaters, he took it.
Still, the more personal a sweater is, the better for Leonard. While there’s been many to choose from, his personal favorite has been the sweater that displayed his dogs, both living and former. The sweater was particularly fitting for not only Leonard, but Queens’ first team to go to the Big Dance.
Throughout the season, the team embraced a “street dog” mentality, emphasized by the two-foot statue of a German shepherd. “Buddy the Street Dog” was presented to the player who embodied that mentality after every game by Leonard. Of course the statue traveled with the team for the NCAA Tournament, and like Leonard’s sweaters, it caught everyone’s attention.
To start off, Leonard had done his own shopping, naming Tipsy Elves and Etsy as some of his go-to producers of sideline sweaters. Now, he has professional artists reaching out to him with designs, and companies wanting to purchase space on his sweaters to advertise.
When Leonard wasn’t wearing a crazy sweater in recent years, he upheld the tradition of coaches wearing suits, but even that he did with a little flair. His ascent to the national stage as not only a great coach, but the sweater guy, may cause a change in his attire habits.
“I’m not saying I’ll never wear another sport coat or suit, but I think I’m gonna be in sweaters for a good minute,” Leonard said.
For anyone who doubts there are enough sweater-worthy occasions on the college basketball calendar, there is nothing to worry about. Leonard is fully prepared to embrace any occasion, no matter how big or small, to bring excitement to the sideline.
“What if it’s National Cupcake Day? Or National Ninja Day?” Leonard said. “There’s always a day, and I think we can find people to honor or periods to honor. I might honor Queens’ history or former coaches. I think there’ll be a lot of cool things that we can pay homage to, and I think it’ll be really unique and fun to find ways to do that.”
As if his wardrobe wasn’t unpredictable enough already, between artists producing designs and his willingness to expand to rather insignificant occasions for sweaters, there’s no telling how wild he will get in 2026-27. And yes, there will be nights where he is not alone with a crazy sweater on the sideline.
It hasn’t happened yet, but Leonard has been carefully watching the market for festive sweaters that he feels fit the personalities of each member of his staff, so don’t be surprised if the entire Queens bench is decked out in holiday spirit at some point this season.
The potential issue with flashy sweaters on gameday Leonard hears most often is the perceived lack of severity. Some fans view quarter-zips or polos as too casual for the sidelines, so Leonard’s attire would obviously receive the same gripe.
Leonard, who’s addressed the concern to the media on multiple occasions, offers a simple rebuttal. His players enjoy the lightheartedness that a sweater brings to the huddle amidst the heat of a game. Nasir Mann, the MVP of the ASUN Conference Tournament where Queens punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament, was particularly fond of the sweaters. The senior guard told Leonard the sweaters made everyone feel more comfortable and helped remind him and his teammates to have fun playing the game they love.
Leonard’s sweater movement isn’t going anywhere, and thanks to his recent spotlight on the national stage, it’s going to continue picking up steam.
Being a young, ambitious head coach, Leonard obviously has a goal with his sweater wearing, and it’s directly tied to what he wants to accomplish on the court.
“There’s one day I would dream of coaching on at this time, and that’d be April Fool’s Day, because that’s the Final Four,” Leonard said.
As an outside-the-box thinker, Leonard has also circled one day on the calendar that will never fall during the season, but would be his dream to prepare a sweater for.
“My dad’s birthday,” Leonard said. “My dad lived with me for a long time before he passed away, and so July 20, would be the other day that I would really love to honor my dad.”
There’s plenty to be decided between now and November in terms of what will go into Leonard’s selection process, but one thing is certain. He will be one of, if not the most uniquely dressed head coach in the country every single night, and he’s only going to get more creative. And no, he’s not going to stop because of the small crowd that thinks the sweaters are too informal.
“I think Lou Carnesecca and Bob Knight won a lot of games with sweaters.”
