The road to “Texas orange” and white
Today, May 10, 2015, we celebrate 115 years of orange and white. There were many twists and turns along the road to end up at the university’s current “Texas orange” and white, but it was a road paved with decades of history and evolving tradition.
The first signs of orange and white trace back to the 1880s, after The University of Texas opened in 1883. During this time, baseball—not football—was the sport of choice for UT students. Unlike college fans today, which attend sporting events wearing t-shirts and caps made of university colors, fans then wore colored ribbons on lapels to show team loyalty.
In April 1885, when the UT baseball team played Southwestern University, orange and white ribbons were worn for the first time. Students Venable Proctor and Clarence Miller had jumped off the train headed north to Georgetown for the game, in order to find ribbon that would identify them as UT fans. They chose the two colors that Carl Baryman’s General Store had the most in stock—bright orange and white.
Even though the first baseball team had sported orange and white, the colors were by no means official, and this would lead to changes by future UT students down the road.
The colors gold and white were significant in the 1890s because many UT campus buildings were built with pale yellow Austin pressed brick, and trimmed with cream-colored limestone. Students identified with their surroundings on campus, so several University teams donned gold and white uniforms, including the university’s first “permanent” football team that took the field in 1893. However, gold and white weren’t official colors either—they only lasted a year.
Members of UT Athletic Council wanted a more “masculine” color, and in 1894 orange was paired with white once more. However, the orange was unstable and had the tendency to bleed during washing. The solution was a darker color that would save cleaning costs and not show dirt as easily—maroon. For the next two years, UT colors were orange and maroon, and the hues were incredibly popular with students. (Texas A&M teams sported red at the time. Maroon wasn’t adopted by the Aggies until the 1930s.)
The sudden change was controversial among alumni. At this point UT fans were displaying all different color combinations, which was confusing. In the spring of 1900, the Board of Regents decided to hold an election to settle the matter. Students, faculty, staff and alumni were all invited to send their ballots. Out of the 1,111 votes cast, 562 were for orange and white, a majority by just seven votes. Orange and maroon received 310, royal blue 203, crimson 10, royal blue and crimson 11 and other colors scattered among the remaining 15 votes. After the vote was taken the Regents gave final approval to choice colors in a meeting on May 10, 1900.
As we celebrate 115 years of orange and white today, it may seem like the road ended there, at the Board of Regents decision. Although, there were more twists on the road in order to reach the version of the colors we see today.
UT athletic teams wore bright orange on their uniforms for the next three decades, which usually faded to a yellow by the end of the season because of washing. This resulted in the nickname “yellow bellies”. In opposition to this term, UT football coach Clyde Littlefield ordered uniforms in a darker shade of orange that wouldn’t fade in 1928. This became what we know as “Texas orange” or “burnt orange”. The dark-orange color remained until the 1940s, when shortages of dye during World War II caused UT uniforms to revert to bright orange. The bright orange was worn until coach Darrell Royal returned to the burnt orange color in the early 1960s.
There you have it—the road to “Texas orange” and white. Next time you sport burnt orange and white, you will know the full story behind our university’s unique and beloved colors.
Sources: UT History Central, The UT History Corner, UT Austin Traditions and Nostalgia by Margaret Catherine Berry Photos: texassports
