Actually, that's quite interesting about Tennessee's colors.....I never knew that.
Any other interesting back stories for how your team got its colors and name?
LSU's purple and gold was originally supposed to be blue and white, the official school colors. On their way to New Orleans for the program's first game against Tulane, the team stopped by Reymond's Department Store for ribbons to make badges (Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!) Although it was November, the store had begun stocking ribbons for the coming Mardi Gras season and had no blue and white, but an abundance of purple and gold--the green had not come in yet. So they bought up the stock and brought purple and gold flare to the game. Although they lost, the team loved the colors, and so despite the disappointment of the university president for not adhering to blue and white, the team retained purple and gold as its colors, with the rest of the university following suit thereafter.
The "Tigers" came from the first coach, Charles Coates, a chemistry professor from John Hopkins, who founded the team because he was taken aback by the school's lack of sports, which he had participated in while in school himself. He thought a fitting name was to reference the Louisiana Tigers, a group of notorious Civil War companies from Louisiana sent to fight in Virginia which frequently found themselves in the worst battles, and were known for their fearlessness and ferocity.
A few years later the original university president returned to the job and was dismayed that the school hadn't stuck to the blue and white, chosen by him early in his first tenure. But by then the colors were popular and he never did anything to change it. He also liked the name "Tigers" since he had been one himself in the Civil War. Interestingly, William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union Army general, was the first superintendent of LSU and heavily involved in its founding. At that time it was called Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy.
