Memorable Moments: Orange Takes Us Back To Our Roots

Ag Day, a tradition which spans more than 40 years is upon us and that means it is time to put away the gold for one week and pull out the orange to celebrate Aggies history. Ag Day was not always steeped in so much orange when the annual salute to Colorado State's agricultural roots began in the early 1980s. It was not until 2010 when a plan to dowse the field and stadium in a sea of orange was devised by the CSU marketing team to instill more school spirit into the annual Ag Day tradition.

Why orange though? Afterall, the school colors are green and gold and even when orange was part of the school's color scheme, it was the secondary color, not the primary one. By enveloping Hughes Stadium, and subsequently Canvas Stadium and Moby Arena with orange, it is a symbol of our agricultural pride and tradition.

Orange as a part of the school colors dates to the very first football game on January 7, 1893, when the first team traveled to a small hybrid high school/college in Longmont and needed to distinguish themselves on the field of play. Orange and green ribbon was purchased at a Longmont dry goods store and pinned to the clothing of each CAC player. After the team bought padded football suits a week later, the orange and green ribbon can even be seen on some players in the January 25, 1893, team photo.

Legend says the green stands for the color of alfalfa in the fields and the orange stands for pumpkin. Several school publications from the 1890s confirm this. Sometime between 1900 and 1909, color was added to what we would know today as the football jerseys and green was established as the primary color, which it remains today. Orange was only the secondary color used to highlight the dark green of letter sweaters, pennants and other publications.

By 1909, new college president, Dr. Charles A. Lory changed the official school colors to green and gold. This gold was not meant to represent the mineral mined in the state, but rather the golden color of corn when it is harvested.

While Dr. Lory may have changed the school colors, orange represented gold off and on until the mid-1950s. Whether by design or rather by a lack of continuity, school materials such as pennants, buttons, uniforms, letter sweaters and more saw the "gold" range in color from bright yellow, to dark yellow, light orange and dark orange too.

In 1940, Coach harry Hughes ordered new football uniforms that were all orange, top and bottom. It was the only time during the Aggie Era that a jersey color was orange, but the orange pants were long ahead of their time and the "Orange-clad Aggies" were laughed at so much Hughes abandoned the all-orange uniforms after 1941.
By 1957, when Colorado A&M became Colorado State University, all use of orange was gone, and CSU replaced it with a bright yellow. From 1958 to 1992, any use of the "gold" was a bright, mustard yellow. Then in 1993, new head coach Sonny Lubick transitioned to a metallic gold in the uniforms and CSU has used a variation of that since.

It was not until 2010, when CSU began to embrace more of their Aggie history and started to allow variations with color in uniforms that CSU brought back their original school colors. The marketing department had an idea to bring back orange, something school administrators had not allowed very much since the change to yellow. The 1990, WAC champion men's basketball team, led by coach Boyd Grant were the first to have any orange in their uniforms since the 1950s. A small stripe on their uniforms with green, yellow and orange made a call-back to Grant's playing days when the Aggie-Rams wore orange. After Grant left CSU, even vendors that sold anything with "Aggies" on their material were not allowed to have orange.

On February 6, 2010, The Rams' men's basketball team faced the University of Wyoming in the first test of an orange uniform for special games. An extremely limited number of fans were able to purchase orange T-shirts which had the "Aggies" name on them and the Rams logo. The basketball team wore an orange uniform with green letters and numerals with "AGGIES" printed across their chests.

That test was a resounding success among fans and the new administration of President Tony Frank. It became apparent fans wanted the throwback of the Aggie era, despite the fact basketball uniforms were always green, white or even gold. No matter what, the success of the mini-orange-out men's basketball game led to the first orange-out in CSU football history.

It came on September 25, 2010, for Ag Day at Hughes Stadium. No team had worn an orange football jersey since Hughes' last full season as head coach; that was 1941. This was before alternate helmets with a 1950s-style orange ram horn or the "Sailor Ram" like CSU wears today. The team's jerseys didn't even have the player's names on the back, they were all labeled "AGGIES."

This time, fans were told to wear orange to the sunny afternoon game and thousands of orange "Aggies" T-shirts were sold to students and alumni. Hughes Stadium looked like the Denver Broncos were in town, a sea of orange throughout the student-laden east stands shown bright in the September sun. The plan worked. Not only did CSU begin a new tradition where every sports team wears orange in at least one home game, but when the Rams play in their orange jerseys, whether it is on the gridiron, court or softball field, fans will remember orange is our heritage and it is meant to be honored.

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