Drew University
New Jersey
1867
Formerly “Drew Theological Seminary”
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): Oxford blue/Lincoln green (1934-1935)
The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) assigned Drew Theological Seminary a hood lining that was Yale blue with an emerald green chevron in 1907 or 1908, and academic hood lists published by the IBAC in 1927, 1948, and 1972 consistently used that description of the university’s hood lining. “Yale blue” is how the IBAC described a dark blue like Oxford blue, and “emerald green” is how the IBAC described a bright green like Lincoln green.
A list compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Heraldry in America (1962) described Drew’s hood lining in a similar fashion, but used the university’s official colors: Oxford blue with a Lincoln green chevron. Sheard also mentioned that the hood lining for the Bachelor of Arts degree (only) was Lincoln green with a gold chevron. This practice came to an end in 1982 when the university began using the official Oxford blue and Lincoln green hood lining for all graduates, regardless of their degree.
The faculty of Drew Theological Seminary chose Lincoln green and Oxford blue as their school colors in the late 1800s or first few years of the 1900s. Lincoln green is a bright green similar to Kelly green or emerald green, and Oxford blue is a very dark blue like navy blue.
After the seminary became a university in 1928, students in the liberal arts college of the university began using green and gold as the colors of their college. These colors are mentioned in the lyrics of Drew’s alma mater song and were later used for the lining of the college’s Bachelor of Arts hood.
This meant Drew was using two sets of academic colors: green and gold for the liberal arts students and green and blue for everyone else. To resolve this problem, a 1982 faculty committee rejected gold and officially defined Drew University’s colors as Lincoln green and Oxford blue, the original school colors of Drew Theological Seminary from the turn of the century.
