To avoid assigning duplicate hood linings to colleges and universities that used the same school colors, the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) used different types of heraldic patterns to divide the two or more colors in an academic hood. In IBAC lists from 1927 and 1948, a number of hood lining patterns were described as “[color] above [color]” or “[color] over [color]”, which referred either to a hood lining divided per chevron, per reversed chevron, or per bar. Unfortunately, today it is not usually known which of these three patterns the Bureau intended to describe.

The IBAC assigned Capital University a hood lined “purple above white”, according to IBAC lists from 1927 and 1948. Neither citation defined the heraldic division between the two colors, and because the Bureau tended to abbreviate “royal purple” to “purple” in its published lists, today it is not known which of the two colors was used in Capital’s hood lining.

The college most commonly used dark purple (royal purple) during the early 20^th century, so this was probably the hood lining color initially assigned by the Intercollegiate Bureau. But when brighter colors became more popular in the 1950s the college may have lightened the shade of its purple, prompting the Intercollegiate Bureau to redesign the hood lining pattern to avoid duplicating the hood lining assigned to Columbia College in South Carolina (purple above white, divided per chevron). A list compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Heraldry in America (1962) described Capital’s hood lining as “medium purple”, but Sheard also said that the hood had two white chevrons, which was also how the lining was also described in an IBAC list from 1972. Unfortunately, this was a duplication of the hood lining the Bureau had already assigned Evansville College (purple with two white chevrons), and Kansas State University was already using a hood lined royal purple with two white chevrons.

To resolve these problems, Capital’s original hood lining pattern has been restored, with what were most likely the hood’s original colors of dark purple and white.