re: How LSU became Purple and Gold

Cool. It's interesting how many of the SEC school's colors are Civil War related.

Here's Wheat's Zouaves, the "tiger" unit from Louisiana (note the blue and white striped trousers):



Also, someone asked about Alabama. The sports writer story Rummy referenced is a new story Alabama created to keep the PC crowd from demonstrating. Hell, the campus newspaper was the "Crimson-White" long before that supposed football game in the red clay was ever played. The game is where the "Crimson Tide" moniker came from, but not where the name "Crimson" came from.

Truth is, in the 1870s/1880s, the University cadets were sent to Mobile to march in a Mardi Gras parade. Whichever krew hosted them came up with the crimson, white, and gray colors. Here's what the were originally supposed to stand for: crimson for the blood shed by the students in defense of the campus in April 1865, gray for the color of their coats, and white for the color of their trousers. Until that the game played in the red clay, the UA football team was called the "Crimson" or the "Varsity."

The elephant deal came from the 1925 Rose Bowl trip. The UA team used luggage donated by the Alabama Trunk Company, which used an elephant as its logo. The luggage handlers and Rose Bowl committee assumed that the elephant was Alabama's logo, so it simply stuck. The "Roll Tide" phrase is from the Civil War-era song, Roll, Alabama, Roll, about the CSS Alabama.

Sorry for the hijack. Great thread!