Available historical information about the official hood lining pattern of Indiana Central University is confusing. A 1927 list from the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) stated that the university’s hood was lined “Yale blue” (dark blue) with a white chevron that had a scarlet strip along its center. This may have been a very early description (c.1909?) of what the Bureau also called a “tri-chevron” – a chevron divided into three parts.

A 1948 list from the Bureau repeated this description for “Central University” in Indiana but also cited a hood lining pattern for “Indiana Central College” (the colloquial name for Indiana Central University) that was cardinal with a gray chevron. The Bureau may not have realized that Indiana Central College and Indiana Central University were the same institution, and recorded the athletic colors of the school as a “generic” hood lining pattern with a single chevron. A 1972 list from the IBAC dropped the citation for “Central University” in Indiana and retained only the cardinal hood lining with gray chevron for “Indiana Central College”.

Because this pattern is too easily confused with the hood linings the Bureau assigned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and to St. Joseph’s College in Pennsylvania, here the early hood lining pattern for Indiana Central University has been retained for the University of Indianapolis, even though the university’s colors are no longer red, white, and blue.

However, if Indianapolis wants to use a hood lined with its current colors of gray and crimson (traditionally: “cardinal”), it would need to use two light gray chevrons, not one, to avoid duplicating the hood lining assigned to MIT. This alternate design is shown below.