“Everyone else is using ‘300’ to represent the Spartans — what a theme for our athletics department to use,” he said. “Spartans overcoming the odds — really fits to athletic teams and underdogs trying to accomplish great goals.”

Inspired by the image, Kerndt presented his idea — to depict the football team marching away from Spartan Stadium behind fleeing or falling opponents — to the users of spartantailgate.com.

Mainly MSU alumni and students, the users began submitting images of players, like one of Anthony Morelli of Penn State after being knocked down by an opponent, along with suggestions.

One said he envisioned a spear piercing the chest of another player.

Kerndt then did what he called “the grunt work.” He cut out each player, added them to the photo and adjusted the lighting, to make the players appear natural in the image.

In total, it took Kerndt 20 hours, to complete. One of the most time-consuming tasks proved to be the painting of 45 capes from red to green, a detail strongly requested by message board fans.

The final wallpaper consisted of 70 layers of pictures, including the iconic university symbols like the Purdue University drum and, of course, Sparty.

“It was really just there to promote school spirit and get people hyped about the season,” he said.

Kerndt also created a wallpaper for the men’s basketball team, which consisted of 150 layers of pictures, including the players’ faces and rain, but was created in the same time frame. The team even contacted Kerndt to compliment him on his work.

The most unexpected element for Kerndt was how many people have seen or downloaded the wallpaper.

He even saw it on teachers’ laptops projected in class. It was this unanticipated support that he appreciates the most.

“I was an anonymous guy on the Internet,” he said. “When I started it was just for fun. I figured maybe 30 people would see it, maybe, tops, 100 people would see it.”

To download the wallpapers, visit http://msu.edu/~kerndtau/300wallpapers.html.