Thought the University's colors were plain old maize and blue?

The new scoreboard boasts bright blue and yellow

Not so fast - the answer is not that simple.

Experts pinpoint 'U' shades

While Michigan's actual school colors have never changed, the exact shades of azure blue and maize have been debated and researched for more than 80 years.

"U of M is just one of those unique places where these things are prone to change," said Liene Karels, University director of information design.

Because of uncertainties about the exact shades, school colors have swung between pale and vibrant over the years in the University's banners, flags and uniforms.

But thanks to color engineering technology and the efforts of several people over the years, Michigan's true hues have been discovered.

The story begins when a group of literary students in 1867 selected the University colors. Only verbal descriptions from the time, however, record exactly what was meant by "azure blue and maize," Karels said.

So for years the University relied on dictionary definitions, said Karels, who spent two years digging into the mystery as the University president's director of market communications.

The 1888 Oxford Dictionary declared azure blue "the clear blue color of the unclouded sky, or of the sea reflecting it."

Maize was "a delicate pale yellow" in the 1909 Webster's New International Dictionary, but the 1895 Century Dictionary defined it as the color of "the sodium salt of the disulphonic acid of azoxy-stilbene."

In 1912, the University appointed a committee headed by a physiology professor named Warren Lombard to find a consistent representation of the colors.

Karel said that throughout her search she was inspired by the understanding of aesthetics shown by Lombard, who was also a pen and ink artist.

"I have such respect for him," Karel said. "When you read his notes, you really feel the presence of a human idealist."

Lombard's committee made a valiant effort to preserve the colors in a lasting form, even considering the enamel work of artisans in New York and Norway.

But the project was ahead of its time. None of the permanent work satisfied Lombard as being the exact University colors.

The committee eventually voted on the official colors from various shades of cloth.

As the years passed, the school colors grew increasingly lighter. In official circles, pale yellow and baby blue was common. But these shades proved too meek for the Athletic Department, which unofficially adopted its own vibrant shades of dark blue and gold.

"It's an interesting phenomena," Karels said. "The two together very nicely represent both ends of the spectrum - subdued and vivacious."

The ribbons the 1912 committee had selected remained tucked away in an envelope in University archives until Karels discovered them in 1996.

LOUIS BROWN/Daily Above: These old ribbons (left) were used as official documentation of the school

colors in 1912 and at graduation ceremonies throughout the early 1900s.

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