Montana State University
Montana
1893
Formerly “Agricultural College of the State of Montana”
In 1897 when the Agricultural College of the State of Montana fielded its first football team and needed official school colors, a literary society for female students suggested three pairs of colors to be put to a student vote. The combination of light blue and gold were selected, and students wore light blue and gold ribbons and rosettes to show their support for the team. Gold decorations often tarnished over time, however, so in practice gold was often replaced by yellow. In the late 1940s and 50s, the college’s light shade of blue evolved into darker shades of blue, especially royal blue.
Citations in the World Almanac (listed by cover date; color information is from the previous year): blue/gold (1912-1915); blue/yellow (1916); blue/gold (1917-1935)
The history of Montana State University’s hood lining pattern is convoluted. In the 1930s or early 1940s the IBAC assigned Montana State College a hood lining that was light blue with a gold chevron, according to an IBAC list from 1948.
Because the university began to use darker shades of blue during the post-war period, the IBAC reassigned Montana State College a new hood lining in the 1950s. This one was royal blue with a reversed “goldenrod” chevron. The Bureau used an inverted chevron to avoid confusion with the hood lining it had already assigned to Ursuline College in Ohio.
This new hood lining for Montana State College was cited by Kevin Sheard in Academic Heraldry in America (1962) and in a 1969 list from the IBAC. A 1972 IBAC list, however, described Montana State’s hood lining as royal blue with a reversed yellow chevron.
The Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume’s original hood lining assignment for Montana State College has been retained here, but the Bureau’s later assignment (royal blue with a reversed gold chevron) is available if the university wishes to use it.