Oxford Blue is the official colour of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. The official Oxford branding guidelines set its definition as

Pantone Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphi ...

282, equivalent to the hex code #002147. With a

hue In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that ...

code of 212, this colour is a very dark tone of azure.

Usage

Oxford Blue stems from the University of Oxford's combined-colleges (whole-university) leading sport teams, thus including

Oxford Blue A blue is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. They are now awarded at a number of other ...

s (first sides) and Half-Blues (second sides). In UK rowing, blades consisting only of that colour are used only by these two sides. However it is used in combination with other colours on the blades of Ardingly, Bristol Ariel,

City of Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the U ...

, Isle of Ely, Sudbury, Torquay, and Hatfield College (Durham) clubs,

Dragon School ("Reach for the Sun") , established = 1877 , closed = , type = Preparatory day and boarding school and Pre-Prep school , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Emma Goldsm ...

(Oxford), and by various Oxford colleges, most notably Oriel and Green Templeton. The colour (or a very close variant said to be the same) is used by the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the CFL East Division, East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based i ...

of the Canadian Football League;

Wycombe Wanderers F.C. Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

; and universities commonly known as

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

; Penn State; Georgetown; Michigan (as to many athletics teams); and Berkeley.

Origin

The colour was originally chosen by

Charles Wordsworth Charles Wordsworth (22 August 1806 – 5 December 1892) was Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane in Scotland. He was a classical scholar, and taught at public schools in England and Scotland. He was a rower, cricketer and athlete and he ...

and

Thomas Garnier Thomas Garnier (1776–1873) was an English churchman and botanist, Dean of Winchester from 1840 to 1872. Life He was the son of George Garnier of Wickham, Hampshire, educated at Hyde Abbey School. He matriculated at Worcester College, Oxford ...

, two members of the 1829 Boat Race crew using "the Christ Church

guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

as our pattern (four of the crew being Christ Church men), only with a broader and darker blue, instead of black stripe. Hence the origin of the 'Dark Blues'." The colour itself is said to have been borrowed from Harrow Blue, as Charles Wordsworth and

Charles Merivale Charles Merivale (8 March 1808 – 27 December 1893) was an English historian and churchman, for many years dean of Ely Cathedral. He was one of the main instigators of the inaugural Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race which took place at Henle ...

, the creators of

The Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. There are separate men's ...

, attended Harrow School. Similarly,

Cambridge Blue A blue is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. They are now awarded at a number of othe ...

is said to have derived from

Eton blue Eton blue, or 'Shelduck Blue' is a shade of green used since early 19th century by sportsmen of Eton College. It is also used by Geelong Grammar School and is similar to the colour used by the University of Cambridge (Cambridge blue). Chelsea FC ...

References

{{shades of blue Shades of blue School colors Terminology of the University of Oxford

Usage

Origin

See also

References