LSU tigers wear white football jerseys during home games because of these four interesting facts: On the championship game they won in 1958, on New Rules implemented in 1982, on fighting the good fight, on the tradition that continues with a twist.
One of the general NCAA football rules require the visiting team to wear white jerseys and the home team to wear colored jerseys. As opposed to this, the LSU team is allowed by the committee to wear white jerseys during home games to respect their tradition for as long as the visiting team agrees and as long as both teams wear contrasting colors. Tradition and luck are the main reasons why LSU Tigers prefer to wear their white jerseys even in home games. Even if they have the alternate purple football jersey as you commonly find with LSU merchandise, the LSU Tigers always wear their white football jerseys even during home games. To help you understand why this is so, here is a brief history on how the tradition of wearing white jerseys during home games began and how it found its way to the present:
On the championship game they won in 1958
The famous team coach that time, Paul Dietzel, started the LSU jersey tradition in 1958 as he thought that wearing white football jerseys for home games would bring them good luck. Indeed, the LSU team won the championship game that year and the tradition of wearing white jerseys continued until 1982.
On New Rules implemented in 1982
In 1982, the NCAA Committee set up and implemented new regulation stating that visiting teams shall wear white jerseys and home teams shall wear colored jerseys. This put the LSU white jersey home game tradition to a sudden halt. The team resorted to wearing their purple jerseys at home games since 1983 to 1994.
On fighting the good fight
It was said that many fans and spectators thought the jersey color brought the team bad luck over the years. In 1995, in an effort to restore and fight for LSU football team’s tradition of wearing white jerseys during home games, Gerry DiNardo, the team’s new coach, approached every member of the NCAA committee and asked to exempt them from the jersey color rule. The appeal was granted and they were the only team allowed to wear white jerseys at home games during that time. In their first home game, the team was said to prove victorious by winning over Auburn with a 12-6 score wearing their white jerseys.
On the tradition that continues with a twist
Since then, the LSU Tigers wore their white jerseys during home games for as long as the visiting teams agreed. There were also instances when they had to wear their colored jerseys for some reasons the visiting teams had to oppose.
In 2009, a new relaxed and more logical rule has been set that both playing teams must wear contrasting jerseys colors, not anymore dictating visiting teams to wear white jerseys and home teams to wear colored jerseys. This delighted many teams, including LSU, as they are now able to freely wear their desired jersey color during games and live up their team tradition.
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