Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania
1855
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): navy blue/white (1895-1931); blue/white (1934-1935)
In the 1905 La Vie yearbook of Pennsylvania State College, the college was listed as a client of the academic costume firm Cotrell & Leonard, which was also the depository for the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC). This means the Bureau had assigned a hood lining design to Pennsylvania State College no later than 1905. Descriptions of the college’s hood lining were not cited until a c.1912 list in a book by Frank Haycraft entitled The Degrees and Hoods of the World’s Colleges and Universities (1923) and a 1918 Encyclopedia Americana article on academic costume written by Gardner Cotrell Leonard, the Director of the IBAC. Both lists stated that the college had been assigned a hood lining that was navy blue with a white chevron, a design that was unchanged in all subsequent Intercollegiate Bureau lists.
A three-person committee from the senior, junior, and sophomore classes at Pennsylvania State College drew up a list of school color options in October 1887. Out of these colors dark pink (cerise) and black were unanimously approved by the students. Unfortunately, exposure to sunlight and repeated washing tended to fade these two colors to white and dark blue, respectively, especially on athletic uniforms. So the student Athletic Association voted to officially change the college colors to navy blue and white on 18 March 1890.
