University of Kentucky
Kentucky
1865
Formerly “State University of Kentucky”
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): orange/blue (1895-1900); blue/white (1906-1931); Yale blue/white (1934-1935)
Although it may have been assigned earlier, the academic hood lining design for the University of Kentucky was first cited in a 1918 Encyclopedia Americana article on academic costume written by Gardner Cotrell Leonard, the Director of the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC). Leonard stated that the university had been assigned a hood lining that was white above blue, with the colors divided per chevron.
Clearly the IBAC was trying to create distinctive hood lining patterns among schools with blue and white colors: Wheaton College in Massachusetts was described in that 1918 list as having a hood lined white above blue, with the colors divided per reversed chevron.
That said, this 1918 assignment was anomalous for Kentucky because beginning with a 1927 list, most subsequent Intercollegiate Bureau materials described the university’s hood lining as being azure blue with a white chevron. The IBAC usually described a bright blue as “azure”, so perhaps Kentucky had requested a hood pattern that used a lighter and brighter shade of blue than the earlier dark blue shades of the late 1890s and early 1900s. Unhelpfully, a late 1930s IBAC list in the Encyclopedia Americana generically said the hood lining was “blue” with a white chevron.
Here Kentucky’s original IBAC assignment has been restored, but with the university’s correct shade of royal blue.
The original school colors of the State University of Kentucky were blue and old gold, and in contemporary materials, old gold was sometimes described as orange. In 1891 students voted to replace old gold with light yellow, and a year later light yellow was changed to white.
The shade of Kentucky’s blue varied, with Yale blue, royal blue, plain blue, and azure blue all cited in various early 20th century sources or depicted in vintage university memorabilia like tobacco cards, silks, pennants, and other ephemera. A shade of dark blue was probably most common; more specifically, “royal blue” is cited by the university as the color of a necktie used to define Kentucky’s blue shade at a 19 December 1891 football game between the university and Centre College (when the Kentucky’s colors were still blue and light yellow).
