University of Mount Union
Ohio
1846
Turquoise and lavender were the original colors of Mount Union College, but these were unpopular with students. Students wore royal purple ribbons to an 1894 football game, and this hue proved so popular that by 1895 royal purple had became the official color of the college. White was being used as a secondary color by the 1910s at the latest, but how and when this started is not known.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): royal purple (1896-1910); royal purple/white (1911); royal purple (1912-1935)
Academic hood lists published by the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) in 1927, 1948, and 1972 described Mount Union College as having a hood lined purple with a white chevron. The actual color of Mount Union’s hood lining was royal purple, not purple, but by the 1920s the Intercollegiate Bureau had stopped distinguishing between “royal purple” and “purple” in its citations. Lists compiled by Kevin Sheard in Academic Heraldry in America (1962) and Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970) correctly described the college’s hood lining as royal purple with a white chevron.