AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Longhorns held its annual team photo shoot on Wednesday and something just didn't seem right to UT fans.
“In five years you won’t be able to tell Texas and Tennessee apart,” one disgruntled fan said on Twitter.
UT fans took to Twitter to express their displeasure with what seemed to be a much brighter shade to the Longhorns' classic burnt orange color scheme.
According to a feature article in Texas Exes' Alcade, the official shade of the Texas Longhorns is Pantone 159 U. But it wasn't always that way.
Legend has it, in 1899, Texas trotted out its football team in various combinations of gold, white, orange, and maroon -- I'll pause for present day UT fans to let out their gags -- before a poll in 1900 made orange and white the official colors of the Longhorns, according to the article. Not burnt orange and white like Texas fans see today, either. We're talking bright orange and white. The article states Texas donned orange and white on game days for more than 20 years before other universities such as Tennessee started wearing it as well. It was in 1925 where Texas adopted the darker "burnt orange" shade, according to the article.
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Without getting too deep into a history lesson, the point is UT fans are particular and passionate about the color scheme of the Texas Longhorns program. For more on the history of the UT's color scheme, visit the Texas Exes article here.
There is no doubting subtle changes have been made to the Texas Longhorns uniform over the years, but UT continues to keep its traditional look intact, much like programs such as Alabama and Notre Dame.
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Small changes like adding the Longhorn logo to the front of the uniform was implemented years ago, compared to the Vince Young and Colt McCoy days, where a Longhorn logo is not seen on the front of the jersey.
Despite these subtle changes, UT Athletic Director Chris Del Conte mentioned in January that he "isn't one to mess with tradition."
Del Conte's comments came after being questioned about the potential for Texas to introduce alternate uniforms into the team's wardrobe, so to speak.
Another alleged -- but not nearly as controversial -- change to the uniform, which was pointed out by Burnt Orange Nation and other Longhorns fans, is a larger "Texas" font on the front of the jersey.
As far as the color controversy is concerned, UT Director of Recruiting Bryan Carrington said the difference in shades that fans on Twitter are eluding to is due to a filter.
Here is a look at Wednesday's photo shoot:
