User:Bantab/Sandbox/History of the University of Florida colors

From Florida's web site: The origin of the school colors is a mystery. One explanation holds that the University of Florida acquired the colors from two of the schools abolished by the Buckman Act of 1905. The University of Florida at Lake City had school colors of Blue and Gold and the East Florida Seminary in Gainesville had Orange and Black. However, there is no direct evidence to support this claim.

The first printed reference to the school colors after the Gainesville campus opened in 1906 occurred in the Florida Times-Union of September 27, 1906. Reporting on the opening of the new campus, the newspaper stated that the buildings were draped in purple and gold. The next known color reference appeared in the first campus newspaper, the University News, and the colors were blue and orange.

In the November 1908 edition of the Florida Pennant, sucessor to the University News, the football team is referred to as the "ol gold and blue." Those colors appeared in several other articles including one by the YMCA stating that the 1911 calendar would have a border of old gold and lettering of royal blue. Something resembling those shades was used on the cover of the Pennant for the years 1908 and 1909. Finally, there was an "alma materish" song from that time period entitled Florida, My Florida (which was also the title of the official state song) that ended "And royal robes her form doth fold, We sing the blue and gold--Florida, my Florida." In all liklihood, the Blue and Gold simply moved to Gainesville from Lake City when the university moved in 1906.

In late 1910, blue and orange reappear. The 1911 YMCA calendar was not printed in blue and gold as planned, but was adorned, instead, with blue and orange edging and banners (figure on right). For a few years thereafter the order of the colors was interchangeable, but Orange and Blue eventually won out.