University of Houston
Texas
1927
Scarlet red and albino white were the ancestral colors of Sir Hugh de Paduinan, whose descendant was Sam Houston, for whom the city and the university are named. It is said that Sir Hugh was knighted in the late 1100s for bravery; he arrived with reinforcements that turned the tide of a heated battle, saving the life of young King Malcolm IV of Scotland.
According to the university, scarlet symbolizes “the blood of royalty that was spared due to the timely arrival of Sir Hugh and the blood that is the life source of the soul”, whereas white symbolizes “the purity and perfections of the heart, mind, and soul engaged in the effort to serve faithfully that which is by right and reason, justfully served.”
“In other words,” the university summarizes, “the red stands for courage or inner strength to face the unknown, and the white stands for the good of helping one’s fellow man.”
The University of Houston did not appear in early Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) lists from 1927 or 1948, so the Bureau probably did not assign the university a hood lining until the late 1940s or 1950s. A list compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Heraldry in America (1962) described Houston’s hood lining as “red” with a white reversed chevron, but IBAC lists state that the university’s hood lining is “scarlet” (1969) or “cardinal red” (1972) with a standard white chevron.
None of these arrangements are unique. The 1962 version is too easily confused with the hood lining of the University of Puerto Rico (scarlet with a white reversed chevron) or the original hood lining of Northern Seminary (cardinal with a white reversed chevron). The 1969 and 1972 versions are identical to the hood linings of Dickinson College (cardinal with a white chevron) or Boston University (scarlet with a white chevron).
That said, the 1962 version has the advantage of borrowing the “chequy” scarlet and white chevron found in the heraldic coat of arms of Sir Hugh de Paduinan, which are used as part of the seal of the University of Houston. So here the university’s hood lining has been redesigned to echo that seal: white with a reversed (or “inverted”) scarlet chevron.