To avoid assigning duplicate hood linings to colleges and universities that used the same school colors, the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) used different types of heraldic patterns to divide the two or more colors in an academic hood. One of the heraldic divisions the Bureau employed was a “reversed chevron”. Here the standard chevron of four to five inches in width was inverted so that the chevron pointed upwards.

The Intercollegiate Bureau might not have assigned West Liberty University a hood lining until the 1960s because the university’s hood lining was not described in any source prior to Kevin Sheard’s list in Academic Dress and Insignia of the World (1970). There it was cited as gold with a reversed black chevron. An IBAC list from 1972 used an identical description.