Guide to Green College Teams - Sport Stuff Genius

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Growing up in Northern California, I didn’t really have a college team I was fond of. The closest option was San Jose State, which was fine, but not really one that was going to make it to the national stage all that often. Stanford was also nearby but still not really close enough to make regular games a thing.

So, I had to look elsewhere. My mom was from Michigan so the University of Michigan was a school I grew fond of. We also took trips to Oregon quite a bit when I was younger, and since I was already an Oakland Athletics baseball team fan, the green and yellow of the University of Oregon really jumped out at me.

All this to say, I’m pretty much obsessed with the color green—and being a major sports fan as well, I wanted to take a look at the different college teams lucky enough to feature green as a major color in their schools’ athletic programs.

Some of the most well-known college teams with green as a primary color include:

University of Oregon

Michigan State
Marshall University
University of Hawaii

University of South Florida
North Dakota State
College of William & Mary

Dartmouth
Baylor

(No University of Notre Dame? This threw me for a loop too knowing they are the Fighting Irish, but the school’s official colors are blue and gold.)

University of Oregon

Starting with the Ducks of the University of Oregon, this is a fun one for so many different reasons. With the school colors themselves, U of O’s green has the HEX code #154733 while the yellow is #FEE123.

Together, the two are clean, simple, and beautiful:

What makes this fun is that you’ll also see Donald Duck in green and yellow a ton, given he is the school’s official mascot.

Read More: Teams With Green Jerseys

“The popular Disney character Donald Duck has been the mascot for decades, thanks to a handshake agreement between then-Athletic Director Leo Harris and Walt Disney in 1947”
Wikipedia

Michigan State

Now, after reading my intro above, you might be thinking…green, Michigan—why University of Michigan and not Michigan State? Not to mention that the Michigan State Spartan mascot is very similar to the local San Jose State Spartan.

Read More: Orange and Black Sports Teams

And for that, I don’t have a great answer! Probably because the University of Michigan was more visible/successful in college football and basketball at the time?

Anyway, I digress, but regardless of my allegiances as a child, Michigan State is a huge school that features green as the main color. Plus, in comparison to a school like the University of Oregon, I’d say Michigan State features green more prominently (because their other official color is white) than U of O, which features yellow quite heavily.

Michigan State’s green is quite a bit darker with a HEX code of #18453B.

Marshall University

Marshall is actually the first college team with green as a color to come to mind. I just remember Randy Moss absolutley dominating on the gridiron in 1997 with 26 touchdowns before being drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 1998.

Others of you might remember Marshall instead from the awful 1970 plane crash, or, from the 2006 movie that told the story. All this to say, Marshall University as a green-color school is one of the better known.

The shade of green is clean, and more of a kelly green, which means it’s much different than Michigan State above and more similar to University of Oregon at the outset:

Let’s also not forget that the “Thundering Herd” is one of the best team names in all of college sports.

University of Hawaii

I don’t know about you, but when I think of green in general, I think of trees and vegitation nestled deeply inside of lush rain forests. (I get it, others might just think of frogs, or broccoli; I didn’t mean to get so poetic, but it’s the truth.)

Anyway, I have a point—it’s only fitting that the University of Hawaii, which represents much of that ecosystem just described is green (and black).

Much closer to Michigan State’s green, the University of Hawaii’s HEX code is #024731. An interesting thing, though—University of Hawaii’s team name is the Raibow Warriors. And since we are talking about colors, there’s nothing more colorful than a rainbow. As such, along with the official green and black, you’ll see the rainbow quite a bit.