Washington & Jefferson College first appeared in an Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) list in 1927, having been assigned a hood lined cardinal with a black chevron. This description was unchanged in an IBAC list from 1948.

But in a pamphlet entitled Academic Costume in America published that same year (1948) by the academic costume firm Cotrell & Leonard (the depository for the IBAC), Washington & Jefferson was said to have a hood divided per chevron. Evidently the IBAC changed the college’s design in 1947 or 1948, probably to avoid duplication with the hood lining originally assigned to Wesleyan University (cardinal with a black chevron) around 1900. Washington & Jefferson’s new hood lining was repeated in a 1972 IBAC list as cardinal over black, divided per chevron.

Unfortunately, this hood lining was identical to the hood lining the IBAC had assigned the University of Georgia in 1897 or 1898 (cardinal above black, divided per chevron). Probably as a way to hide the fact that the IBAC had assigned the same hood to two institutions, a 1969 IBAC list described Washington & Jefferson’s hood lining as “red” over black with the colors divided per chevron.

To rectify this problem, Washington & Jefferson has been reassigned what the Bureau called a “tri-chevron” design that echoes a heraldic pattern from the college’s coat of arms.