Color Me Ole Miss

Fans voted on the game-day colors you’ll be wearing in the stadium this year.

Written By Eugene Stockstill  |  Illustrated by Catherine Ann Herrington Davis

The choosing of game-day colors is one of those insignificant things that, in Oxford, isn’t quite so insignificant after all.

After all, game-day fashion is a high point at Ole Miss where cocktail dresses, heels, blazers and bow ties are standard attire for fans in the Grove. So, by giving direction on what color to wear, the university is influencing fashion choices as well as helping fans become part of the action inside the stadium.

Game-day colors have been a thing at Ole Miss for 10 years. The first game’s color is always white, creating a “white out” look in the stadium that makes a big statement for those in attendance. Last year, it was matched by the team when they debuted new white uniforms for the first game.

A stripe-out day is when ticket holders wear the color their section has been assigned for that day. A map is circulated to produce this impressive stadium-wide effect that’s noticeable not just for attendees but also for television audiences.

This year, for the first time, Ole Miss students and alums voted online via olemisssports.com to pick what colors will be the official colors to wear to each home football game. A total of 7,475 votes were submitted.

“The feedback has been enthusiastic,” said Drew Ingraham, a senior associate athletics director at the university. “Fans are excited to be a part of the voting process.”

Fans who voted could also make donations to the Grove Collective to boost voting influence while raising money to be put toward Ole Miss student athlete NIL agreements.

If you donated $50, your vote counted five times. If you gave $100, your vote equaled 10 votes. If you happened to donate $250,000 to the Grove Collective when you voted, then you got to pick the color for a game yourself.

This year’s colors were chosen back in February and published in March on the annual, ultra-popular yellow poster — making yellow the other color that’s at play every Ole Miss football season. The iconic, much-anticipated schedule poster is distributed in the spring at special events and is available for pickup at the university’s main office for athletics.

Red seems to be the top pick this year, being the color of choice for four home games and one away game. Aside from the Aug. 30 white game and the stripe out on Sept. 13, navy and powder blue split the remaining five games.

All of this game-day color drama unfurls in the name of school loyalty, but it’s evident that with loyalty comes a degree of opinionatedness.

“What does everybody have against wearing navy?” one fan wrote online.

Another commenter asserted that royal blue is the true blue of Ole Miss.

In past years, some fans wondered why red was chosen as the day’s game color when Ole Miss was playing a school like Georgia, whose primary color is also red.

“Powder blue is not an official color,” opined yet another fan.

To set the record straight, official Ole Miss colors are cardinal red and navy blue, but powder blue is a secondary color and is used quite a bit.

“It is a fan favorite,” Ingraham said.

The shade made its modern comeback in 2014 when the team surprised fans by wearing powder blue helmets during a game celebrating the legacy of Chucky Mullins. The color was worn in the 1980s when Mullins played on the team. (More specifically, according to Ole Miss, powder blue helmets were worn from 1948-77 and then again from 1983-94.)

Mixed with commentary about the color choices, fans this year were also quick to share their feelings online about the upcoming season — and many predict it will not be much of a burden for the Ole Miss football squad, regardless of who’s wearing what color.

“Looks like a 10-2 season,” wrote one fan.

Hotty Toddy!