THE COLOR PURPLE: College's color predates Apache as team mascot
| To story about the big fix of '47: The Apache picked as L-P-O mascot | To student newspaper report of Apache name choice in 1947 | To story about Spartans: team name picked in 1942, never used |
Purple has been the college color at least since the mid-1930s.
How purple was selected or when it became the color of choice is not clear. LaSalle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College, IVCCs predecessor, was founded in 1924.
Earliest mention of purple in a student newspaper was in the March 22, 1935, edition of the Hi-Co Scanner, which carried the headline, “Purple Quint Defeated in Cage Tourney.”
By the mid-1940s, teams were being called The Purple Raiders in the student newspaper.
In the student vote in 1947, when the Apache was selected, Purple Raiders was one of three choices, but it came in third.