On 16 May 1895 the Intercollegiate Commission on Academic Costume approved a uniform system of caps, gowns, and hoods for American colleges and universities called the “Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume”. The commissioners intended for every college and university to use a unique arrangement of their colors in the hood lining which would enable an observer to “read” the hood and thereby identify the alma mater of the hood’s owner.

A list of college colors provided to the Quarterly by the commissioners cited Bucknell’s colors as orange and blue, but a 1927 list by the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) refined the description of the university’s hood lining as orange with a Yale blue chevron. “Yale blue” was a synonym for dark blue. This description does not change in subsequent IBAC lists or in lists compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Heraldry in America (1962) and Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970).

Unfortunately, in using this description the IBAC was engaging in a bit of semantic deception, because the Bureau had already assigned the University of Florida a hood that was lined orange with a navy blue chevron. This meant that in actual practice Florida’s orange lining with a navy blue chevron was indistinguishable from Bucknell’s orange lining with a Yale blue chevron.

To avoid this problem, Bucknell has been reassigned a hood lining pattern that resembles its school seal.