He did not attend school there (McGilvrey had degrees from what is now Indiana State University and Indiana University, so if anything he's a Hoosier!). Shriver credits McGilvrey being a "staunch Illini," though even in his own book, he also writes that McGilvrey was from Indiana and while he was on the faculty at the University of Illinois for a time, it was only for three years. He cites a March 13, 1913, article in the old Kent Courier and writes that McGilvrey "determined" that the school's colors would be orange and blue. The earliest reference to blue and gold as school colors in the Chestnut Burr is the 1921 edtion, which has a picture and description of the "Blue and Gold Debate Club."īut where did orange and blue come from? According to the first history of Kent State, The Years of Youth, written in 1960 by Phillip Shriver, the orange and blue originated from the university's first president John McGilvrey. The 1914 yearbook has a page that says "School Colors: Orange and Blue" at the bottom, and later has a page entitled "Our School Song" which references "her orange and blue." The 1915 yearbook has a school song "The Orange and Blue" on a page. For this, we have some direct evidence for orange and blue as the school colors.īoth the 1914 (first yearbook) and 1915 books make direct references to the school colors as orange and blue. Being contemprary sources of the period, they also offer us glimpses into the way things were how people dressed, how they thought, what was considered humorous, what was considered important, etc.
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