The Fighting Magentas

I attended Fordham as an undergrad. The university's colors are maroon and white. But as we all know, identity changes over time. Designers would be in poor shape if this wasn't true.

Until 1875, Fordham's colors were magenta and white. Am I alone in thinking this is pretty cool?

Fordham's Web site tells the tale: in 1874, Fordham and Harvard ("Fordham's archrival." Hah! Tell that to my high school guidance counselor) played a series of baseball games to decide who would earn the right to wear magenta. Long story short: Fordham won, Harvard reneged, Fordham switched to maroon and white in 1875, only to be followed by Harvard changing to crimson that same year. Apparently, the "Battle of Aren't Maroon and Crimson Pretty Similar?" was not worth fighting.

I'm not exactly sure how or why I know this, but it's a fun little story and a bit puzzling too. Magenta? Really? So how delightful is it that Rebecca Bengal's entertaining article "Pink & Blue" in the current issue of Print (sorry, the story isn't online) informed me there wasn't anything strange with sports teams wearing what we've come to think of as feminine colors: "By the early 20th century, pink was considered a masculine color -- a light red -- and mothers were counseled to dress their daughters in demure Virgin Mary blue."

Fordham and Harvard aren't alone: pink and blue used to be the colors of Syracuse University, Penn State took the field in pink and black until 1890, and Vassar College waited until the 1970s to abandon pink (again, to maroon).

At least we can be happy that official colors aren't really that official. Sadly, though, this is only available in the women's cut: