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Yellow fever Former coward's color is making a sports comeback
Those of you who watched the opening ceremonies the other day saw the familiar Olympic flag with the five rings -- of red, blue, green, yellow and black -- representing, it is said, at least one of the national colors of every Olympic nation. Inasmuch as even the newest nations eschew beige or lavender in their flags, this is probably true. Still, one of those five prime Olympic colors remains a rarity in sports. Need I say more than: "You dirty, yellow rat"? Or: "You got a yellow streak a mile wide down your back"? Because yellow connotes cowardice, very few teams choose yellow as a color. Likewise, you will be hard-pressed to find any team with a chicken as a mascot. Teams are so reluctant to identify themselves as yellow that even the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets refuse to have yellow as a school color. Instead, the Yellow Jackets are officially Old Gold and White. Likewise, the Mighty Ducks. Don't you think ducks are yellow? I do. I think they're every bit as yellow as yellow jackets. But the Mighty Ducks are gold. Maybe that's why they're mighty. That is the way out for most teams. They wear yellow, but they call it gold. Some teams even start out as yellow, but then get, uh, chicken and change to gold. If my unofficial calculations are correct, 29 professional teams are gold, but only three offer yellow as a prime color. Those are the Brewers, the Padres and the SuperSonics. More teams are teal than yellow. For goodness' sake-- teal! Poor yellow. Two-hundred-something colleges play Division I basketball. Eighty-six of them wear gold. How many of them do you think wear yellow? Three. One of them is Oregon. Unlike the Mighty Ducks, the Oregon Ducks are not self-conscious. Their colors are Emerald Green and Lemon Yellow. Lemon Yellow. No pussyfooting. Hooray for Oregon. Wyoming is brown and yellow. Wyoming's teams are called the Cowboys. That's very conflicting: yellow cowboys. But guess what is even more peculiar? The third yellow school is a warrior college -- Virginia Military Institute. It even has yellow in its fight song. How's that for gutsy? "Oh when the line starts to weaken, the backs fail to
gain,
Of course, there is one celebrated instance of good yellow in sport. The leader of the Tour du France earns the honor -- the honor! -- of wearing a yellow shirt. But have you ever seen a boxer in yellow trunks? A golfer in a yellow shirt -- even if they all are scared to death of Tiger Woods? A wrestler in a lemon yellow get-up? Men's tennis is considering the possibility of aping the Tour du France and putting its No.1 player in a yellow shirt, but the sporting goods companies who own the players don't like the idea of their stars in a yellow shirt. Poor yellow. But, believe it or not, yellow may be becoming fashionable. There used to be just Yellow Cabs on the road. Now there are all sorts of bright yellow convertibles and motorcycles. Dick Tracy, in the comic strips, was about the only famous person who ever wore yellow. Where did he find those yellow hats and yellow trench coats? Well, you have to be chicken not to wear yellow clothes now. The yellow ring in the Olympic flag has never shined so bright. And, believe me: this is not yellow journalism. These commentaries, which appear each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, are posted weekly by CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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