Watch the Vol Walk before Tennessee’s game against UTSA at Neyland Stadium.
Watch the Tennessee football team take the Vol Walk before the Tennessee vs. UTSA game at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, September 23, 2023.
Knoxville News Sentinel
With the University of Texas leaving the Big 12 and moving to the SEC, it sparks a debate that will need to be resolved off the field this season: Which orange is better?
On one side is Tennessee orange, the Volunteers’ eye-catching calling card. On the other side is Texas burnt orange, the softer (duller?) shade of the Longhorns.
While Tennessee’s opponents love to hate the Vols’ bright color—loudly enough to rival the volume of the 101,915 screaming fans at Neyland Stadium—monopolizing a controversial color does have its advantages.
“A bold and distinctive color gives you a clear and easily recognizable identity that sets you apart from the crowd,” Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, told Knox News via email. “It also helps make a lasting impression and makes it easier to make a connection between the color and what it stands for.”
Thanks to Pantone, the company known for choosing the color of the year each year, Tennessee and Texas are able to standardize their colors as Pantone 151 and 159, respectively.
But which is better?
A burnt orange, perfect for “workwear”
In color psychology, orange represents both vibrancy and harshness. As color psychologist Jill Morton writes in her blog Color Matters, a darker orange like terracotta “may be more attractive to those who find orange difficult.”
In the debate between Tennessee’s orange and Texas’s, it’s hard not to see the Volunteer State’s color as unabashed orange—a loud embrace of fire and vitamin C.
Before the tenure of Longhorns coach Darrell Royal, Texas orange was a bright shade that “befitted a young and aggressive university,” according to The Alcalde, UT Austin’s alumni publication. Royal championed burnt orange for uniforms in the 1960s, which he famously called “work uniforms.”
Tennessee Orange remains young, even though it was first selected in 1889 and the university is nearly 100 years older than its new SEC counterpart.
Tennessee Orange reflects the team’s playful identity
Pressman declined to say which color she prefers, saying it all depends on the context.
“Every college football stadium looks different,” Pressman said. “I wouldn’t say one color is preferable to another. It’s about the personality of the university and using a color that best fits the personality it wants to express.”
If color is a sign of what a university stands for, then burnt orange is a sign of business. It is the skin of a workhorse, a shade that is neither meant to offend nor to go too far, a color that is about likability.
Tennessee Orange doesn’t just belong in the workplace, it also belongs in the stands on Saturdays. And it doesn’t care if you like it.
Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focusing on technology and energy. Phone: 423-637-0878. Email: [email protected].
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