Lady Vols—Blue on Uniforms

In 1968, when Joan Cronan became head Lady Vols basketball coach at 23 years old, the Lady Vols did not have any uniforms—they were playing in T-shirts and shorts. Cronan set about to change that. Only a few companies made women’s basketball uniforms, and none offered an orange uniform. She found some uniforms with orange lettering, which was fine for road games, but rules prohibited home teams from wearing white. Cronan had to decide what color the home-game uniforms would be. She liked Carolina (Columbia) Blue. It was available, and it went well with orange lettering. In a few years, there was soon no problem with getting orange uniforms, but a “touch of Columbia blue” has remained.