Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Virginia
1872
“Cadet black” and gray were the first school colors of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, but when these colors were used in the striped football uniforms popular in the late 1800s, the “Virginia Tech” athletes resembled a chain gang of prisoners. So, in 1896 a student committee voted to change the official college colors to burnt orange and “Chicago maroon” because they were a “unique combination” not in being used at any other college or university at the time.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): orange/maroon (1904-1935)
The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) assigned Virginia Polytechnic Institute a hood lined orange with a maroon chevron at some point before 1927, when this description first appeared in an IBAC list. The description was unchanged in subsequent Intercollegiate Bureau lists.
Virginia Tech must have sent the Bureau a fabric sample that was a brighter shade of orange than the school’s official burnt orange; here the correct shade of burnt orange has been used.