Back in 1921 there was a movement to change UAlbany's colors by the athletic council

[The_DHC]

I was doing research on my pennant when I came across an interesting piece of UA history. Essentially, the athletic council proposed changing the school colors for practical reasons.

1. Too many local schools used purple and gold. Changing the colors, as the athletic council believed, would help distinguish UAlbany (then NYS College for Teachers) from the local high schools who also used the same color scheme, and would make reporting on UAlbany events much easier for newspapers when they referred to the school by its colors
   
2. Purple and gold were difficult to come by. Equipment in purple and gold were hard to fill orders as they were not stock colors back then.
   
3. Poor quality of purple dye. For whatever reason, the purple dyes back then would fade easily and washing them only ensured that the colors ran.
   

Here are the screen shots from State College News, March 3, 1921. I have the text version below in case it's difficult to read:

 

 

 

ATHLETIC COUNCIL PROPOSES A CHANGE OF COLORS FOR STATE COLLEGE

Student Body to Decide Whether Purple and Gold Will Remain

—Question to be Discussed

March 11th

 

In a meeting witli Dr. Brubacher in the President's office Wednesday,February 23, the Athletic Council petitioned the President for consideration of a change in the colors of State College. The main objections to the present combination were presented by Coach Suavely. First, he said that in tl>e Capital District there are at least live secondary schools which have Purple and Gold, namely, Christian Brothers' Acadamy, Cathedral Academy, La Salle, St. Bernard and the Johnstown High School. This fact makes it hard for the local newspapers to simply use the colors when writing up State College athletics, for it would he very confusing. In this way State loses the distinction that Syracuse has when it is referred to as the Orange, or Harvard as the Crimson, and Colgate as the Maroon.

 

Another reason for the proposed change was that Coach Snavely found it hard to fill orders for basketball, hockey and baseball equipment. Purple and Gold are not stock colors, and when they are obtained the purple especially is not a good dye. Consequently it cannot be washed without running and changing lo nearly all the colors of the rainbow.

 

After hearing the reasons for such a change, Dr. Brubacher opened the

Continued on page 4.

 

 

 

 

ATHLETIC COUNCIL

Continued from page I.

 

matter to general discussion, and some objections to relinquishing the old colors were recorded. The chief of these was that a mass of tradition has been built around the Purple and Gold in in past and a change would do away with this. In connection with this it was pointed out that tradition is an important part of college life.

 

After carefully summing up both sides of the question Dr. Brubacher decided to refer the question to Myskania, and a committee of men from the various athletic teams, for further consideration, and to finally put the matter lo vote in Student Assembly Friday, March 11. The committee appointed includes Coach Suavely, chairman; Edward Linck and Harold Baldwin, 22; Charles Reilly and Adrian Johnson, '23, and Oliver Putnam, '24. Maurice liathoni was named as general chairman of

the two bodies.

 

Among other colors suggested, a dark blue and gold, blue and gray, seemed to meet with the most approval, as they involve less change than other combinations, and at the same time overcome all the objections to the Purple and Gold.

Edited August 22, 2014 by The_DHC

[The_DHC]

Since the athletic council proposed blue and gray to replace the purple and gold, I ran a super advanced computer simulation to see just how things would be if history played out differently

 

 

Well.. that's something..

[Michigan_Dane]

I like it

[Eli]

That blue and silver looks mmm mmm gooood.

 

My favorite color is blue so I would have *LOVED* it if my favorite team had blue. Unfortunately, the only team I root for which has blue in it is the NY Rangers. New York Jets, Miami Heat, and Great Danes have no blue .

Edited August 22, 2014 by Ilko