I was there, wore one. Maroon like today. Always Maroon, silver pants. Swarthout made the change to TX burnt orange in '69 along with their wishbone. So quit being so stubbornly wrong.
I'm sure that was a great honor to wear that uniform and play the game under one of the all-time great coaches. I do not feel I am being stubborn about this at all though for several reasons.
I have many memories of coming to Missoula and visiting the pawn shops with my dad that were down by the train station on Higgins Avenue, Alder and Spruce Streets. Typically, we would go into the Army-Navy that occupied the original Bob Ward's store.
One time we went in there, there was a basket full of stocking caps with "Montana Grizzlies" across the front and they were selling them very cheap and I asked if I could have one. The guy in the store came over and told a story to my very frugal father about these guys that had been in town from D.C. who bought a bunch of the hats because they were Redskins fans and the team colors were the same. He went on to say to them that this was actually copper and they shared a laugh over that because we all know that was not copper. It is what the University of Montana used to represent copper, however. With that, I respectfully share this passage:
The official
school colors of the University of Montana are
copper,
silver, and
gold; these were chosen in recognition of the state's mining history. Contrary to popular perception,
these colors have never changed, with the confusion stemming from the university's decision to
represent "copper" with either maroon or "Texas orange" at various times in its history.
When the university was founded in 1893 and its colors were chosen, a lack of copper dye led the school to use maroon, and occasionally other colors, to represent copper. This had the effect of having the school's athletic teams not always being represented across the board by the same uniform colors. In 1967, head football coach and athletic director Jack Swarthout, who personally preferred the maroon and silver used by the football team, sought to make the schools colors more consistent and held a vote among UM coaches. They selected
Texas orange (
burnt orange to represent copper) and yellow gold to be used on the school's uniforms and it remained for the next 30 years.
The maroon was brought back in 1993 as part of the university's centennial celebrations and a student survey in 1995 showed support for a return to maroon and silver uniforms. Despite some vocal opposition, by 1997, the colors began to phase into the maroon and silver that are used.