Oregon State University Athletics

Oregon State was known as Corvallis College until the mid 1890s and the school color was navy blue. A faculty committee appointed by school President John Bloss voted to replace blue with orange. Not long after, black was selected by the student body as a background color. A local tailor named J.H. Harris donated black uniforms for the baseball team in this time frame, and it is believed to be where the black color scheme began in athletics, although that is debatable. An article in the local Corvallis Gazette-Times in 1892 describes the use of orange and black in commencement ceremonies, nearly a year prior to orange becoming the official color.

While orange was originally the official color, over the years black has become more universally accepted as one of the official colors. Today, nearly all of OSU accepts black and Pantone 165 orange as the official colors.