What Are the School Colors of Some Famous Colleges and Universities?

The eight Ivy League schools in the United States most commonly use the colors of blue, white and red for their insignia. None of the Ivy League schools use the same combination of school colors.

There are eight Ivy League schools in the United States, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. The others are Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown and Columbia. Each of these schools boasts a different combination of school colors with rich history behind their selection.

Harvard’s color is crimson. The color dates back to the 1850s when two members of the rowing team gave their teammates crimson-colored scarves to wear during a regatta. In 1875, the school asked students to vote between crimson and magenta as the official school color; the students chose crimson. The name of the school’s newspaper, The Magenta, was immediately changed. Yale University also chose its color, Yale Blue, based on the uniforms of crew uniforms in the 1800s.

Another famous Ivy League institution is Princeton, which uses orange and black. In 1867, a student suggested orange as a school color since William III of Nassau, who had a building at Princeton named after him, was also the Prince of Orange. The color stuck and black was later added as an accompaniment.

The University of Pennsylvania’s colors are blue and red in honor of the colors of the flag of the United States. As the college is located in Philadelphia, the university shares strong historical ties to the founding of the United States.

Other famous Ivy League school colors are blue and white for Columbia University, white and carnelian for Cornell University, and red and brown for Brown University. Dartmouth University is the only Ivy League that uses the color green.