Ashton Ellis
Staff Writer
Imagine the traditional, baby blue uniforms of the University of North Carolina women’s soccer team featuring archrival Duke University’s royal blue. Impossible, right? Yet that is exactly the case when watching the Lady Waves soccer team wearing navy blue (like conference rivals Gonzaga and USD) during a home game last semester.
As a member of the law student group Legal Waves, wearing a supposedly school-approved royal blue and orange t-shirt, I was left wondering why two students representing the same school should be dressed differently. The lesson here is that school colors, and their uniformity, matter.
The athletic teams and school paraphernalia alternate between royal blue and navy blue.
As a supportive student with limited financial means, I would like to buy clothes that reflect the university’s unique choice of school colors. Unfortunately, the alternating use of both blues makes this difficult. Coupled with the ever-changing mascot, there is something inconsistent about asking students to support their school without presenting a clear picture of what we are supporting.
In short, it’s all about branding. A look across the college landscape reveals the benefits of consistency. Anyone familiar with collegiate sports knows the difference between Texas’ burnt orange and Tennessee’s brighter shade, Oklahoma’s maroon and Nebraska’s “big” red.
Michigan’s maize and blue is as distinct as Southern California’s brick red and gold. Because of their carefully selected colors, each school is instantly recognizable to fans, foes and neutrals alike.
Pepperdine is no different. The selection of the school’s colors originally fell to a committee that recommended the adoption of the traditional (and bland) combination of blue and gold. The choice seemed to say more about a desire for conformity with others than an inspired distinction. Then-president Batsell Baxter thought differently.
Overriding the committee’s consensus, he challenged the status quo and substituted a vibrant orange for the staid gold. His inspiration: the expansive blue of the Pacific Ocean and the ubiquitous orange groves dotting the California coastline.
In a stroke of genius, President Baxter provided his beloved Pepperdine with a color combination that symbolized its uniqueness in both location and perspective.
Color consistency matters because these hues adorn the single most identifiable export of any university: athletics. For all the Fulbright Scholars and appellate court clerkships that Pepperdine can boast, it is worth remembering that, aside from its pristine locale, the school’s most known asset is its athletic success. Nine NCAA Division 1 national championships will do that.
For those who disbelieve the importance of athletic success to a university’s bottom line (enrollment and endowment), look no further than the millions of dollars in free publicity enjoyed by the universities of Florida and Boise State, both recent winners of BCS bowl games in college football.
Pepperdine belongs among the academic and athletic elites. As our university seeks to climb the ranks of the nation’s top-tier universities, let us start by making sure everyone from freshmen to sportscasters know immediately and unmistakably which kind of blue is true.
01-25-2007