University of Texas shirts tale

Southofthered.net is your online store for Texas lore! That's because we have for you the best quality and the greatest variety of University of Texas merchandise, and we'll tell the tale of the burnt orange. You may be wondering, "Why burnt orange?" Well, it all started way back in the 1880s, when UT was "getting its legs" in baseball. Back then fans didn't have University of Texas shirts to wear; instead they wore ribbons to show support for their team. Also, UT didn't have team colors yet. When the train stopped in Austin on its way to a game in Georgetown, Venable Proctor and Clarence Miller sprinted down to the nearest general store to get some ribbons for the fans to wear. When asked what color, the boys, who were in a bit of a hurry to get back to their train, said, "Anything!" Well, the store owner had lots of white, which was in high demand for weddings, and he had a lot of orange, which no one ever bought. That's how the Longhorn merchandise colors began.

Through the years, the colors changed. The first uniforms were actually gold and white stripes. Looking for a more masculine color, though, they switched to orange and white. Because the white was hard to clean, it was changed to maroon in 1897. University of Texas shirts sold today would be an unusual maroon and orange had this combination persisted. Fortunately, it didn't. So much controversy surrounded the school color issue that finally the student body voted on the matter. Of the 1,111 votes cast, over half were for the orange and white. The orange would fade, though, and by the end of the season would be an unattractive yellowish color. It earned the Longhorns the nickname "yellow bellies". So, in 1928, UT coach Clyde Littlefield ordered uniforms in a darker shade of orange, a burnt orange that wouldn't fade. The same color so many UT students and faculty prize in their University of Texas merchandise held out for most of the century. It reverted to bright orange for a period during and after the depression when the dye became too expensive. Finally, Coach Darrell Royal in the early 1960s ordered new uniforms in the traditional burnt orange and this color loved by the Longhorns has remained.