UAB colors

The UAB colors are, officially, green and white with a gold accent color, but are popularly thought of as green and gold.

In March 1970 the Kaleidoscope student newspaper observed that there was "a lot of rap going on about the colors," and provided a form to be filled out and returned to the paper or to the UAB Student Government Association.

At the same time, a group made up of members of the SGA and the Student Entertainment Committee was assembled by President Joseph Volker to deliberate on a color scheme. Many of the first schemes debated were rejected as being too similar to other schools. Entertainment Committee member Chuck Snow proposed green to represent life sciences and paired it with gold to represent prosperity. Though there is no record that it was discussed at the time, green and gold were also the colors used by the Ullman High School Wolfpack before that school was assimilated into the university that same year.

Snow's suggestion was ratified by the committee and forwarded to Volker's staff, but no immediate decision was made. Instead the green and gold scheme was included as one of six options listed on a survey distributed to students, faculty and staff. The result was 231 votes for green and gold, 147 votes for blue and white; and 93 votes for rust and white. The bottom three options were green and gray, red and gray, and red and blue. A report on the results of the survey was prepared and delivered to Volker, but he evidently did nothing with it.

As commencement exercises approached in the spring of 1971 Volker telephoned teacher education professor Virginia Horns, who was overseeing the event plans, to check on her progress. He mentioned that it would be good to have some "brighter" colors than the browns and blacks that dominated the previous commencement at Boutwell Auditorium. When she asked what colors he would like to see, he responded, "I don't give a goddamn what colors we have just so long as there is some brightness in the flowers on the stage!". Horns had been involved in the student surveys, and she selected bright gold and green flowers.

By the time UAB began its intercollegiate athletic program in 1978 under Gene Bartow, the green and gold colors were already established and used, in varying shades, by the school's club teams. Consideration was given to dropping the gold color, which was hard to keep consistent in the manufacture of uniforms and equipment, but after consultation with Russell Athletic, an "old gold" shade was settled on.

For graphic consistency, the university usually uses green along with white and black, with gold only appearing occasionally as an accent color.

Color definitions

 

#1E6B52

 

#F4C300

• Forest Green
  • Pantone Matching System: PMS 3425
  • Hexadecimal encoding: 1E6B52
  • RGB values: 30, 107, 82
  • CMYK values: 89, 32, 84, 21

• Old Gold
  • Pantone Matching System: PMS 7406
  • Hexadecimal encoding: F4C300
  • RGB values: 244,195,0
  • CMYK values: 5, 22, 100, 0

References

• “Color and Controversy” (March 1970) Kaleidoscope
• McWilliams, Tennant S. (2007) New Lights in the Valley: The Emergence of UAB. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press ISBN 0817315462
• Buchanan, Charles & Rosalind Fournier (January 2017) "Blazer Beginnings: The stories behind some of UAB's spirited traditions" UAB Magazine

External links

• Colors at uab.edu/brand