Team Colour Meanings

[Nervous One]

Do all the UC schools also use some form of bear as their mascot? I know about the Bruins and the Golden Bears, but I can't remember any others.

No, Irvine is the Anteaters, Santa Monica or Barbara is the Banana Slugs. Those are the only two branches I can think of, although I think there are other non-bear mascots.

Santa Barbara--my alma mater--is the Gauchos. Santa Cruz is the Banana Slugs. San Diego is the Tritons. Davis is the Aggies. The jury is still out on the Central Valley campus. The rest use the bear as a mascot.

[Johnny H]

I had always heard that owner Leon hess made the NY Jets' colors green and white to match his business, Hess oil.

Hat Boy,

The Jets were originally the Titans of the AFL. Their unis' were blue & gold, but when Sonny Werbelin & Leon Hess bought them & changed the name, he changed the colors for Hess gas stations.

[eSabre]

The Detroit Lions are now are black and blue because they got served by the Forty Niners this weekend.

Actually, I'm gonna throw out a guess and say they're blue and silver because of the ford logo?

I remember hearing a story about this.

Something along the lines of, the team had just signed a new player, and they brought him and his wife into the team offices. Management had a few sample uniforms laying out, and the one of the team officials asked the player which he liked best. He picked the Hawaiian blue and silver combo, and the rest is history.

I'll see if I can back this up.

[iowahoo]

I'd love to hear a story like:

The Cleveland Browns got their colors because the owner loved eating chocolate and drinking orange juice on game day...

That would be humorous.

Well, I think the Browns are called the Browns because of their forst coach Paul Brown. But I don't know why they use orange.

Thanks for reading my post on page one of this thread regarding why the Browns colours are orange and brown. And to the original poster of this idea. . .. orange juice is yellow anyway.

[spyboy1]

most teams wear their colors because they think they'll sell merch. lol

stars wear green, gold, and black, because the north stars did... and they only added black, because black is fashionable.

Lou Nanne had the black added to the North Stars home jerseys in 1981 to try to make them look tougher. Back then selling jerseys wasn't nearly as big a consideration as it is now. Only Boston, Vancouver and Pittsburgh used black jerseys and only Philly and Chicago even had it as a trim color, so it was hardly 'trendy' at the time.

It wasn't until 1988 that it was added to the road jerseys for some bizzaro reason. The only other black by that time was the LA Kings new "Gretzky" jersey set, introduced the same season.

[Discrim]

most teams wear their colors because they think they'll sell merch. lol

stars wear green, gold, and black, because the north stars did... and they only added black, because black is fashionable.

Lou Nanne had the black added to the North Stars home jerseys in 1981 to try to make them look tougher. Back then selling jerseys wasn't nearly as big a consideration as it is now. Only Boston, Vancouver and Pittsburgh used black jerseys and only Philly and Chicago even had it as a trim color, so it was hardly 'trendy' at the time.

It wasn't until 1988 that it was added to the road jerseys for some bizzaro reason. The only other black by that time was the LA Kings new "Gretzky" jersey set, introduced the same season.

heh, that musta been the guy who wanted black jerseys for the Stars...as I mentioned, there were plans to replace the greens with black jerseys in the same style as the whites that debuted for the 81-82 campaign, but they decided to shelve those plans after making it to the Cup. heh, somebody should make that jersey

[doafhat]

Oklahoma State wears orange and black because in its early history as Oklahoma A&M, it was referred to as the "Princeton of the Plains," so the school adopted Princeton's colors, mascot, and modified their logo for OAMC. While the logos and mascots changed over the years, the colors have stuck.

[neo_prankster]

Do all the UC schools also use some form of bear as their mascot? I know about the Bruins and the Golden Bears, but I can't remember any others.

No, Irvine is the Anteaters, Santa Monica or Barbara is the Banana Slugs. Those are the only two branches I can think of, although I think there are other non-bear mascots.

UC Riverside is the Highlanders

[Claystation360]

Well I don't know the details but i know that back in the 40's the Lions had scarlet & black uni's & switched back & forth between that & the Hawaiian Blue & Silver . S o can't really way the Lions jumped on the bandwagon with black unis . Not all the way .

[Panthers]

The Cincinnati Bengals wear orange and black because . . . they were Paul Brown's team and he modeled it after the Browns.

The original colors of the Jax Jaguars were . . . silver, teal and black. Why, I just don't know.

The Frankfurt Galaxy wear purple, orange and red because . . . when the league started, they were to be located in Memphis and owned by Fred Smith, Chairman of Federal Express. FedEx's colors = purple, orange, red.

The Birmingham Fire wore navy, crimson and gold because . . . navy was for Auburn, crimson for Alabama and gold for Ala-B'Ham.

Jax Bulls wore garnet, orange and silver because . . . garnet was for Florida State, orange was for U of Florida.

The Barcelona Dragons wore green because . . . the NFL wanted them in navy and dragons are green acording to Catalan legend (also explains why they wore four stripes of red interlaced with gold - because San Geordi [st. George] slew the Dragon with four fingers. The four red stripes represent the blood of the dragon)

I am surprised why no one picked up on why the Pittsburgh Penguins went from blue to black/gold (had to do with a World Series and a couple of Super Bowls)

The California Golden Seals wore gold and green because . . Charlie Finley owned them and put them in the same colors as A's and the ABA's Memphis Tams (which he owned)

[rmered]

Well, the North Americans can close their eyes, but this is just one of my things.

In Australian Football, the uniforms can mostly be traced to the availability of uniforms.

For instance, the 1875, the first recorded shipment of sporting uniforms from England was delivered to Australia.

Only one problem. All of them were Blue.

Today, Melbourne FC and Carlton FC still predominantly wear Blue due to this shipment.

Obviously this unworkable, so another shipment was ordered and arrived in 1876.

Blue, Blue and White stipes, Blue and White Hoops.

Geelong still wear Blue and White hoops from this order, North Melbourne, then called Hotham still wear Blue and White stripes form this order. (Though they've changed designs along the way, they've returned to this design.)

Of the rest.

Adelaide wear Navy Red and Gold as they are the official sporting colours of the state of South Australia.

Brisbane wear Fitzroy's Maroon, Blue and Gold. Fitzroy wore Maroon because that was the next colour ordered from England after the stripes and hoops arrived. Everyone wore Blue work pants in games in those days, and the Gold comes from the chamois reinforcing on the early jumpers.

Carlton, as described above, only ever put a CFC logo on the blue jumper from the 1870's.

Collingwood decided on Black and White stripes because 1. it was different from the other clubs, and 2. a committee member had seen South Australia wear it in a State game. They also adopted their logo, the piping shrike, calling it by the more common Magpie.

Essendon wear Black and Red because they were the colours of the McCracken family's Coat of Arms. The McCrackens were the people who founded the club.

Footscray started as one of the Blue and White hoops teams, and adopted a Red cap to distinguish themselves from other teams in Blue and White hoops. They adopted the cap in reference to the local Rowing club, who had won 3 Grey Cup titles in a row.

Fremantle wear Purple because Red and Blue make purple, and the two existing sides, South Freo and East Freo wore those colours, along with White, which is another Fremantle colour. The Green and Red represent Port and Starboard.

Geelong are still hoops, as mentioned previously.

Hawthorn are Brown and Gold because they were made to change from Blue and Gold upon joining the VFL. It was actually debated at local council (local government) and a vote taken by those present.

Melbourne chose Red socks to distinguish them from the other teams who wore Blue guernseys. Red socks were brought back from England in 1872 by a member of the club, who gave one set to Melbourne, and a Blue set to Carlton.

North are as described above.

Port chose Black and White, after wearing Magenta in it's early days. They could not buy Magenta dye, so they decided upon colours which were in plentiful supply. When they joined the AFL, they had to adopt additional colours to appease Collingwood, who already owned Black & White, so took on Silver and Teal as colours not used by other clubs. Teal was suuposed to represent the sea.

Richmond chose Yellow and Black because they were the colours of the City of Richmond.

StKilda were Black and Red initially, and the player tied White handkerchiefs around their necks in games against other teams in those colours. Red and Black were the colours of the South Yarra club, from which StKilda was formed. I have not found out why South yarra wore Red & Black.

Sydney retained the Red and White from transplanted South Melbourne. They started as one of the Blue and White hoops teams, and retained the hoops, changing to the only other alternate colour available, Red and White hoops.

West Coast are Gold and Blue to represent the state of WA (Gold) and the Indian Ocean (Blue)

[ColeJ]

The Cincinnati Bengals wear orange and black because . . . they were Paul Brown's team and he modeled it after the Browns.

The original colors of the Jax Jaguars were . . . silver, teal and black. Why, I just don't know.

The Frankfurt Galaxy wear purple, orange and red because . . . when the league started, they were to be located in Memphis and owned by Fred Smith, Chairman of Federal Express. FedEx's colors = purple, orange, red.

The Birmingham Fire wore navy, crimson and gold because . . . navy was for Auburn, crimson for Alabama and gold for Ala-B'Ham.

Jax Bulls wore garnet, orange and silver because . . . garnet was for Florida State, orange was for U of Florida.

The Barcelona Dragons wore green because . . . the NFL wanted them in navy and dragons are green acording to Catalan legend (also explains why they wore four stripes of red interlaced with gold - because San Geordi [st. George] slew the Dragon with four fingers. The four red stripes represent the blood of the dragon)

I am surprised why no one picked up on why the Pittsburgh Penguins went from blue to black/gold (had to do with a World Series and a couple of Super Bowls)

The California Golden Seals wore gold and green because . . Charlie Finley owned them and put them in the same colors as A's and the ABA's Memphis Tams (which he owned)

the seals wore white skates, too

[Bucks6thMan]

the Packers originally wore navy and gold due to Curly Lambeau having played for Notre Dame before forming the Packers. Likely because his mentor, Knute Rockne, occasionally put the Irish in green jerseys, Lambeau used green instead of navy infrequently, though he always went back to blue.

the Packers switched from navy to green in 1950 (or whereabouts) because the new coach thought it made more sense for a city called Green Bay to have a green-clad team. although the Packers revived navy a few years later when said coach was fired, green would return a couple years before Lombardi arrived.

I remember reading an article a few years ago that said that Lambeau bought used unis from Marquette. It was just a coincidence that MU had the same colors as Notre Dame, but because the Irish tribute story sounded better than "I got a good deal on some used jerseys from MU" that became the "reason" for the colors.

Not sure if it's true or not tho... I tried to google the article but couldn't come up with anything.

[Gothamite]

I've never heard that story, and I've done a little bit of research on the subject.

I'd tend to doubt it, but I won't say that it isn't true. Maybe somebody with Lexus/Nexus can do an article search - do you remember the publication?

[Blue Falcon]

I had always heard that owner Leon hess made the NY Jets' colors green and white to match his business, Hess oil.

Hat Boy,

The Jets were originally the Titans of the AFL. Their unis' were blue & gold, but when Sonny Werbelin & Leon Hess bought them & changed the name, he changed the colors for Hess gas stations.

Man, the Jets have to be the only pro team whose colors came from a gas station! Maybe that's why the Football Gods are not kind to the New York Jest.

I remember hearing rumors that when Daniel Napoleon Snyder bought the Skins and sold the rights to the stadium to Fed Ex, that he was going to change the colors to match Fed Ex. Like his initial idea of hiring Pepper Johnson to coach the team, folks raised HELL about it and the idea was shelved.

I also heard that Home Depot owns the Atlanta Falcons, and the owner was considering adding orange to their scheme for marketing purposes.

[totc]

The New York Knicks, New York Liberty, New York Islanders and New York Mets chose Blue and Orange because those are the colors of New York City.

And the Orange of New York City is because New York used to be New Amsterdam -- Dutch property of the House of Orange.

The big mystery is why St. Louis wears blue as their main colour. Makes no sense. Anybody?

Ever been to a blues music club in St. Louis? You'll understand.

[Gothamite]

I remember hearing rumors that when Daniel Napoleon Snyder bought the Skins and sold the rights to the stadium to Fed Ex, that he was going to change the colors to match Fed Ex.

Are you sure you're remembering that correctly?

The Memphis Grizzlies were intended to become the Memphis Express, with orange and purple as the team colors.

[totc]

Bowling Green adopted the colors in 1919, I believe, because someone in the athletic department spotted the color combination on a woman's hat while riding an inter-urban train between Bowling Green and Toledo.

My God, what if that hat had been pink and yellow?

The Sharks teal white and black reflects the fickle taste of the times and pays homage to miami vice...

The Sharks wanted teal because if the color caught on (i.e., Jax. Jaguars, Charlotte Hornets, etc.), the franchise would corner the market on the fabric. Supposedly the franchise bought all of the teal pro mesh available.

The Pumas' colors and name were inspired by the school's football team, los Pumas Dorados, who wore blue and gold in homage to Notre Damers who introduced UNAM to football.

That is, "American" football. Sometimes when you watch a Mexican match, there are painted-over gridiron numbers and lines on the field.

[powersurge]

I'd love to hear a story like:

The Cleveland Browns got their colors because the owner loved eating chocolate and drinking orange juice on game day...

That would be humorous.

Well, I think the Browns are called the Browns because of their forst coach Paul Brown. But I don't know why they use orange.

Thanks for reading my post on page one of this thread regarding why the Browns colours are orange and brown. And to the original poster of this idea. . .. orange juice is yellow anyway.

You know I was joking right?

BTW, I honestly have no clue if orange juice is orange or yellow because I haven't touched the stuff in years. I should check it out though, because I always thought it was orange like the fruit.

Nobody mentioned the interesting story about how the Bengals got their colors. I heard it has to do with Paul Brown liking the Orange and Brown colors of his original team (Cleveland) and bringing them to Cincinnati. I can't quite remember if he went with the black instead of brown because of the colors of a bengal cat but I'd imagine thats why he did it. There's this really cool image of him at his desk with all of these Bengal stripe helmets when they were deciding to update their look. I'll try an find it. Some of the helmets are hilariously awful.

[hecticbro]

Anteaters are some kind of bear, aren't they? I've heard them referred to as ant bears.