Bradley University
Illinois
1897
Formerly “Bradley Polytechnic Institute”
Contradictory information exists regarding the history of the school colors of Bradley Polytechnic Institute. Maroon and white seem to have been the original school colors selected by the students of the institute in 1897 and appear in several contemporary documents in the 1920s. But by the 1940s red and white were cited as Bradley’s colors, said to be inspired by the carnations that decorated the table at the college’s foundation dinner in 1897. The red rose is also the symbol of the university. Green has also been used as a school color. Today, Bradley’s official tartan pattern is red, white, and black.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): maroon/white (1923-1935)
Bradley Polytechnic Institute appears in a 1927 Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic (IBAC) list as having a maroon lining with an ivory white chevron, not a pure white chevron. This description of Bradley’s hood lining does not change in subsequent IBAC lists as late as 1972, long after Bradley began to describe its colors as red and white. But in a compilation of hood lining descriptions in Academic Heraldry in America (1962), Kevin Sheard described institute’s hood lining as red with a white chevron. Today Bradley University has an official tartan that has been registered with the Scottish Registry of Tartans. Since there are so many colleges and universities with red and white school colors, here Bradley has been assigned its tartan as a hood lining.