Tennessee orange has a fascinating history actually. Long story short… Someone got drunk, puked in a pumpkin, and the perfect shade of orange was born.
For anyone that wants the real answer. The University president was walking around the campus while it was being built. He saw all the construction and garbage truck workers and decided that orange would be a fitting color.
Our first coach wanted to put Mardi Gras ribbons (which are purple, gold, and green) on the team uniform to give it some more color, however the shop he went to hadn’t gotten the shipment of green ribbon in so he just went with purple and gold.
The ibis was also chosen as the mascot because apparently it’s the last bird or creature to leave before a hurricane comes and the first one that comes back to rebuild its nest or something like that.
I’m pretty sure A&M intended to be crimson and white, but instead of being sent the crimson jerseys we ordered we were sent maroon instead so we just went along with it.
It is now grows on the side of the road in Tennessee. I went to college at a small school in Nashville and would see it on the side of the interstate every summer.
I'm not sure why burnt orange makes more sense for longhorns than purple does for horned frogs (lizards). But I do believe that college sports have the right to be whimsical.
Sometime in the late 1870s, an English instructor (Augusta Smith) was asked to pick out ribbons for the diplomas and picked maroon and gold because they look nice. Rumor suggests she may have actually had her niece pick the colors originally too
Surprisingly we don’t have a solid reason. Everything from the “sunset over the mountains”, the Auburn joke, and even “because it was all we could buy” is pretty much theories with a bit of truth behind them all. Doesn’t help that we had about 5 different color sets throughout our history. Our school and fans back then really didn’t care enough to record why.
From the feathers on a women’s hat spotted by a professor while on a trolly to Toledo. The Cleveland Browns used the BGSU campus for training and Mr Brown loved the combo and adopted them for his football team 🟠🟤
University of Oregon students voted to adopt lemon yellow as their school color in 1893 to symbolize the official Oregon flower, the wild grape. Green was never officially authorized, but it has been used with yellow for so long that it is commonly understood to be the university's second school color.
Boise Junior College used to be black and red and got their unis secondhand from Boise High. Once they got serious, they decided on blue and orange because there weren't any blue and orange schools around (locally, I'm guessing) and picked the broncos as the mascot for the same reason.
I don’t think the actually reason has been determined but the one I like is black for the coal that powered the Commodore’s trains and steamships and gold for his vast fortune.
We were founded by Yalies, so the “Berkeley Blue” is more or less a rip-off of Yale’s blue. The gold in any California team is always gonna represent the Gold Rush.
Colorado has a rich mineral history. The official colors of the University of Colorado are gold and silver because of this (most universities in the state have at least one of those as one of their colors). But gold and silver look terrible together, so black and gold were adopted for athletics.
Started with sage green and silver(sage for the native sage bush and silver for the local mining industry), but it was difficult and expensive to make uniforms with those colors. Red white and blue were widely available and not expensive.
I don't know either, but we started as pink and black. Legend says they eventually faded on the flag to blue and white.
Faded uniforms rather than flag based on the story I know
BRING BACK THE PINK
State flag.
same for us actually, our state flag is much more plain but the colors are Crimson and White
Tennessee orange has a fascinating history actually. Long story short… Someone got drunk, puked in a pumpkin, and the perfect shade of orange was born.
For anyone that wants the real answer. The University president was walking around the campus while it was being built. He saw all the construction and garbage truck workers and decided that orange would be a fitting color.
I've seen this documentary and loved it.
Black, gold, and gray are the colors of the ingredients of gunpowder.
This is baller as hell, honestly.
When ole miss was founded we took several things from popular universities. Oxford, from Oxford university, blue from Yale and red from Harvard.
Cambridge University in shambles.
Mardi Gras season but they were out of green
Our first coach wanted to put Mardi Gras ribbons (which are purple, gold, and green) on the team uniform to give it some more color, however the shop he went to hadn’t gotten the shipment of green ribbon in so he just went with purple and gold.
Oh man....a Mardi gras uniform would be so awesome.
Man I always wondered how Miami got the colors we did.
The ibis was also chosen as the mascot because apparently it’s the last bird or creature to leave before a hurricane comes and the first one that comes back to rebuild its nest or something like that.
I’m pretty sure A&M intended to be crimson and white, but instead of being sent the crimson jerseys we ordered we were sent maroon instead so we just went along with it.
The story I heard was the crimson got turned into maroon in the laundry and the players liked that better
If my memory is correct, I believe the orange came from from flowers (daisies?) that grew on campus.
IRRC the kid who decided the color was actually color blind
It is now grows on the side of the road in Tennessee. I went to college at a small school in Nashville and would see it on the side of the interstate every summer.
originally was supposed to be orange and black but after we learned that was princeton’s colors we changed it to scarlet and gray
Can't be copying Princeton's colors if your stadium is copying Harvard's.
Blue for the Skies, silver because we're the Silver state
Home means Nevada,
Makes sense, considering you guys ARE the only school with a sky over it after all.
We were originally black and white.
Here is a
Pecos Bill shot my great aunt in the foot.
Corn + Sky = Maize + Blue
Kinda strange they didn't go with a Sky Blue here. It would have led to some cool uniforms too (though, I do like the darker blue)
Used to be grey and red until some student came back from a trip with an orange and navy hankerchief that proved popular.
I'm not sure why burnt orange makes more sense for longhorns than purple does for horned frogs (lizards). But I do believe that college sports have the right to be whimsical.
Luis Jimenez also made
FSU’s is interesting.
Our colors were originally silver, gold, and black. This is from an old ISU student newspaper on the reasoning behind those colors:
This ruins the Hawkeyes fans favorite narrative that we just copied Ronald McDonald's outfit.
Just for the TC, there are some purple horned frogs, but purple frogs in general are the rarest species to be found in the world.
Sometime in the late 1870s, an English instructor (Augusta Smith) was asked to pick out ribbons for the diplomas and picked maroon and gold because they look nice. Rumor suggests she may have actually had her niece pick the colors originally too
The guy who chose them went to Princeton. We were originally Orange, Black, & the Tigers. Only the Orange & Black bit stuck.
The myth is that gold was rejected by UGA as an official color (red gold and black) because it represented cowardice (yellow)
It’s long and complicated…sort of
Maybe Indian bloodshed? Zero research done.
Dog, WHAT?
Surprisingly we don’t have a solid reason. Everything from the “sunset over the mountains”, the Auburn joke, and even “because it was all we could buy” is pretty much theories with a bit of truth behind them all. Doesn’t help that we had about 5 different color sets throughout our history. Our school and fans back then really didn’t care enough to record why.
Our first president’s wife liked green, gold, and purple (we don’t use purple anymore though)
Huh, never knew about the purple with USF. Seems like it would have clashed too much
I think it comes from the fight song: "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder", which is a reference to the sky.
The answer to most questions like this for Houston athletics is Washington State University
From the feathers on a women’s hat spotted by a professor while on a trolly to Toledo. The Cleveland Browns used the BGSU campus for training and Mr Brown loved the combo and adopted them for his football team 🟠🟤
Straight from the WVU website.
University of Oregon students voted to adopt lemon yellow as their school color in 1893 to symbolize the official Oregon flower, the wild grape. Green was never officially authorized, but it has been used with yellow for so long that it is commonly understood to be the university's second school color.
White represents a clean game
Boise Junior College used to be black and red and got their unis secondhand from Boise High. Once they got serious, they decided on blue and orange because there weren't any blue and orange schools around (locally, I'm guessing) and picked the broncos as the mascot for the same reason.
Baylor’s green is represents the grassy hills of Ireland and the gold represents the pot of Baptist gold we all know and love.
We just did the opposite of North Carolina.
I don’t think the actually reason has been determined but the one I like is black for the coal that powered the Commodore’s trains and steamships and gold for his vast fortune.
We were founded by Yalies, so the “Berkeley Blue” is more or less a rip-off of Yale’s blue. The gold in any California team is always gonna represent the Gold Rush.
KU just merged Harvard and Yale. Crimson and Blue.
Student government voted on it. From UC:
Colorado has a rich mineral history. The official colors of the University of Colorado are gold and silver because of this (most universities in the state have at least one of those as one of their colors). But gold and silver look terrible together, so black and gold were adopted for athletics.
Ordered red jerseys, but there was a mistake and maroon ones showed up. Maroon stuck.
Started with sage green and silver(sage for the native sage bush and silver for the local mining industry), but it was difficult and expensive to make uniforms with those colors. Red white and blue were widely available and not expensive.