Purple and Gold

College Colors Day, an annual expression of school pride sponsored by ESPN, will take place Aug. 31 nationally. Everyone is urged to wear their college’s colors that day to celebrate.

“It’s to get people all across the country excited about the new football season and all the sports,” said Tyler Unsicker, ticket manager for UNA athletics and Flowers Hall supervisor. Unsicker is in charge of promoting the event on UNA’s campus.

For UNA students, this means showing university support by wearing purple and gold apparel.  

According to the official website, collegecolorsday.com, millions of individuals and thousands of organizations take part in College Colors Day, which originated in 2005. The website says that it aims to promote “the traditions and spirit that make the college experience great,” and “advocate higher education”.

Unsicker said UNA would like as many people as possible to participate and show school pride.

“We’re encouraging people not to wear other people’s school colors but to wear our own and represent our university,” he said.

Several students at UNA had not heard of College Colors Day but said they would like to participate.

“I don’t know what it is, but it sounds fun, and I would do it,” said Wiley Belew, a UNA student.

Other students did not care about College Colors Day. Turner Renick, a UNA student, said she probably would not wear the school colors on purpose.

Aug. 31 there will be people either at the GUC or walking around campus with Lion apparel so that students can change out their shirts, Unsicker said. If someone is wearing another school’s shirt, then they will be able to exchange it for a UNA shirt, he said.

This will provide an opportunity for students who do not have UNA attire to participate in College Colors Day. Deavon Thompson, a UNA student, said he used to go to UAH and did not have any purple yet, but he would probably wear it if he got some before Friday.

Through the College Colors Day webpage, people are able to enter the College Colors Day Photo of the Week Contest on Facebook. Those who register become eligible to win prizes from ESPN Shop, including weekly $50 gift cards and a $500 shopping spree. Weekly prizes are also given to winners of the photo contest.  

Students can also pledge allegiance to their school online — however, pledging has been temporarily suspended due to unexplained “inauthentic activity.” College Colors tweeted apologies for the Pledge contest being compromised and said they are “working with ESPN to rectify the situation as soon as possible.”

Several students were interested in registering online.

“I’ll probably check it out and see what’s available,” said Daven Henderson, a UNA student.