The Origin Of The Saints Colors

Some teams pick their uniform colors because of a certain “look” they want to portray, some teams chose their colors based on a local college team’s uniform colors, and some teams even pick their colors based on what colors are popular at the time.  Then there are some teams that no one can figure out exactly why they chose those colors.

And then there are the New Orleans Saints.

The Saints traditional colors of Black and Gold (not to be confused with the Pittsburgh Steelers Black and Gold) are immediately identifiable with the NFL team from New Orleans.  But, why Black and Gold?

Surely with Mardi Gras a popular event in New Orleans, they could’ve chosen some wild combination of party colors.  With the Mississippi River flowing through and with New Orleans being on the coast they could’ve chosen some sort of Blue as well.  There were many options for the New Orleans Saints to consider, but they chose Black and Gold.  But, why?

New Orleans has a long history of ties to the oil industry; both with the oil fields of Louisiana, and with being a main shipping port for outgoing oil from Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma.  Still, not sure why the use of Black and Gold?  Much of New Orleans being the city it is today is because of that oil… that Texas Tea… that “Black Gold”.