Seeing red

By Terry Rombeck     Oct 9, 2004

Thad Allender/Journal-World Photo
Meredithe McCormick, left in Kansas University's crimson and blue, and Janna Dunbar, president of the Lawrence Area Catbackers, a Kansas State University booster club, show off their school colors.

Let’s face it. In a year when the difference between a 2-3 record and a 5-0 record comes down to a safety, shanked field goals and a freakishly impotent offense, little things are making a huge difference for the Kansas University football team. It’s midseason. Jayhawk fans are getting desperate. It’s time to solicit smashmouth football advice from an interior designer.

Margaret Walch is director of the Color Association of the United States, based in New York City. She studies colors and the emotions they elicit.

And she has a solution for the Jayhawks’ recent football woes: Ditch the dark blue uniforms and go with KU’s other official color, crimson.

“I would say the crimson is kind of like lending a spark to the blue and white, which represent tradition,” Walch said. “It’s much more high-energy than a white or a blue.”

Could it be that easy? Could changing the color of KU’s football jerseys be the ingredient that puts the Jayhawks over the hump?

Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
Andy Mitts, a KU sophomore from Olathe, takes a whack at a purple car on the lawn of Stauffer-Flint Hall. Anyone dressed in crimson and blue Friday could take a swing at the Wildcat car.

Walch puts a lot of stock in the feelings we experience when we see certain colors. Navy blue reminds us of authority, strength and tradition, she said. Crimson conjures up more emotions, including love, passion, energy and hate.

And the purple that visiting Kansas State will be wearing during today’s homecoming game represents royalty and religion, a result of the rarity of the purple dye in ancient times, she said.

Purple tends to make people feel passionately one way or the other: We either love the color or we hate it. That was pretty evident Friday on the lawn of Stauffer-Flint Hall at KU. Jayhawk fans clad in crimson and blue were taking out their aggression on an 11-game KSU winning streak over KU by beating on a purple Toyota Celica with a sledge hammer.

Shades of blue

KU’s home football jerseys have been navy blue since 2002, coach Mark Mangino’s first year. They had been navy blue periodically throughout Jayhawk football history, but more recently had been royal blue. The team also wears a dark blue helmet and white pants at Memorial Stadium.

On the road, the jerseys are white with dark blue letters, helmet and pants.

The KU basketball team — historically the university’s more successful team — wears jerseys that are a much lighter blue, with much more crimson and white.

Margie Kuhn, who teaches classes in color for KU’s design department, said the difference in basketball and football jerseys could explain the difference in success between the two programs. If the football players are surrounded by more relaxing colors, they might not get as fired up about playing.

“Red is associated with a lot of excitement, anger and passion,” she said. “It raises your blood pressure, makes you eat more, and it’s very exciting. It can be anger, like a red flag.

“Blue is a real relaxing color. When you look at it, you focus on the back side of the retina, and the muscles in your eye relax.”

Kickoff: 6:20 tonight.Where: Memorial StadiumLine: KSU by 3.Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network, including 1320 KLWNTelevision: Sunflower Broadband Channel 6 at 10 a.m. SundaySeries: Kansas leads 61-35-5

Of course, it could be it’s the color of an opponent’s jerseys — and not the Jayhawks’ own — that matters. When the K-State linemen come to the line of scrimmage today and see dark blue, they might get relaxed. So dark blue could be an advantage.

Inside vs. outside

Walch declined to speculate which sets of jerseys would matter the most. After all, she does her color commentary in living rooms and dining rooms, not the play-by-play booth.

Changing KU’s football jerseys to add more red might be controversial. But if it results in wins, fans no doubt would be in favor.

“Good idea,” said Meredithe McCormick, a football season-ticket holder for 24 years. “Red’s a cheery color.”

But Janna Dunbar, president of the Lawrence Area Catbackers, a KSU booster club, dismissed the potential impact.

“I don’t think they care,” she said of her Wildcats. “I don’t think color has a lot to do with winning percentage.”

You can count David Johnston, KU’s marketing director and a former track standout, in that category, as well. Johnston has been leading an effort toward picking standardized colors for use across campus.

He said it was too early to say whether his office would recommend all of KU’s sports teams wear the same color of blue, which could mean football could find itself wearing lighter-colored duds.

That may or may not matter from a marketing perspective, Johnston said. But he’s pretty sure it doesn’t matter from a football perspective.

“The colors you wear on the outside aren’t as important as the colors you wear on the inside,” Johnston said. “I’m talking about pride. That’s going to win us the game on Saturday.”

KU’s original school colors were maize and sky blue, after the University of Michigan.In 1890, Harvard alumnus John J. McCook donated money for KU’s new athletic field. University officials decided to honor him by making the school color red.However, faculty who had graduated from Yale were offended and insisted their alma mater not be overlooked. In 1896, the university officially adopted crimson and blue.KSU students chose purple as their school color in 1886 because of “the regal beauty of royal purple” and the fact they couldn’t find any other university that used it.However, purple wasn’t officially adopted as the university’s color until 1921. White was picked as a complementary color in 1951.Sources: KU University Relations; KSU’s university archives
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