Winthrop University
South Carolina
1886
Garnet and gold did not become the official colors of Winthrop College until 1979. For the first 90 years at this women’s college, Winthrop freshmen wore garnet-and-gold-colored beanie caps (“rat caps”) because these were the colors of the Winthrop Training School, the normal school that later became Winthrop College. The college band wore uniforms in those same colors. But each college class selected its own colors and mascot.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): garnet/gold (1915-1935)
Although it may have been assigned earlier, the academic hood lining design for Winthrop University was first cited in a 1918 Encyclopedia Americana article on academic costume written by Gardner Cotrell Leonard, the Director of the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC). Leonard stated that the university had been assigned a hood lining that was garnet with a gold chevron. This description did not change in subsequent IBAC lists.