State University of New York system (SUNY)
New York
1948
Each institution in the system uses different athletic colors but the same academic hood lining pattern.
The original school colors for the State University of New York (SUNY) system were apparently dark blue and gold. At some point these were changed to medium shades of blue and gray, but it is currently not known when or how the colors were changed.
In Academic Heraldry in America (1962), Kevin Sheard stated that each college or university in the State University of New York (SUNY) system used individual academic hoods. But when Sheard published updated hood lining pattern information in Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970), he said all constituent colleges and universities in the SUNY system were using a single design: navy blue with a gold chevron. Unfortunately, this was a lining pattern the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) had already assigned to Simmons College no later than 1918.
A 1972 list by the IBAC contradicted Sheard. Instead of a single, system-wide hood lining pattern, the Bureau cited different hood linings for each of the individual schools in the State University of New York system.
Here all of the colleges and universities in the SUNY system have been reassigned a single hood lining pattern that echoes the heraldic pattern of the system seal: a division per bar, gray above blue. However, the historic athletic colors for each school continue to be used for other purposes.