re: LSU and The Purple Jersey Story

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As you know, dark jerseys are worn for home games however in the 80's or 90's, not sure when LSU decided they liked their white jerseys better. LSU request to wear white jerseys for home games if the other team allows it.

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WTF?

LSU was wearing white jerseys at home from at least the 1950s. In 1983, the NCAA mandated that visiting teams had to wear white and home teams had to wear jerseys "of a contrasting color". This rule stayed in effect through 1994. Throughout this period, LSU always wore purple jerseys at home games.

When LSU hired Gerry DiNardo in 1995, he personally appeared before the NCAA rules committee to request a change in the rule to allow LSU to wear white jerseys at home. He even brought white LSU jerseys for all the committee members. After giving them the shirts he said something to the effect that "My family is from Brooklyn, and where we come from, if you accept the bribe..." They all laughed and they agreed to change the rule. Beginning in 1995, the home team could wear white if the visiting team agreed to allow it.

In 1996, Vanderbilt, pissed because we hired DiNardo away from them, refused to agree to let us wear white, so DiNardo broke out the gold jerseys for the first time (we would later wear gold in two other games, the 1997 Independence Bowl and the 1998 game at Florida). Sometime afterward, the SEC made a rule that, for conference games, required the visiting team to allow the home team to wear white if it requested permission to do so.