While University of Virginia men’s basketball fans always trumpeted the success of the program’s all-time winningest coach, sections of supporters often loathed the lack of a certain school color in the Cavaliers’ uniforms during the Tony Bennett era.
Equipment manager Matt Althoff heard their cries on social media each time he’d post a photo of the team’s jerseys ahead of a road trip.
“It’s usually the first response,” Althoff said. “‘Get rid of those blues. Where is the orange? When’s TB going to bring out the orange? Are we ever going to bring them back?’”
A narrative had been formed: Bennett must despise orange.
On Wednesday night, for their 11th game in the post-Bennett era, the Wahoos, now under interim head coach Ron Sanchez, will wear orange uniforms for the first time in 14 years when they host the University of Memphis at John Paul Jones Arena.
🟠🔶🔸Re-Release: 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐎𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞🔸🔶🟠
— Virginia Men’s Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) December 15, 2024
[♪ Violin plays upbeat ♪]
Wally Walker:
Our strongest memories are formed when our senses are engaged, sights, sounds, feelings, colors. When I think of Virginia, I think of the orange and the blue.
Basketball announcer:
The Virginia Cavaliers have done it, it’s over, Virginia has won it.
Wally Walker:
The beauty of sports is the legacy, the memories that bind generations, but the connection between the color, the jersey, the university, that’s us – that’s our brand.
[♪ “Super Bad?” by James Brown plays ♪]
We know what you’re thinking, but trust us – the timing is actually a coincidence.
Bennett, in fact, approved of these uniforms – a quasi-throwback to the Ralph Sampson and Wally Walker eras of Virginia basketball – well before he retired in October.
Last month, the Hoos debuted an alternate white uniform – with a vintage script “Cavaliers” across the chest – for their 67-41 win over Holy Cross. That look, plus the orange set, were both part of a long-term project involving Bennett, Althoff, Virginia Athletics administrators and the University’s communications office, which handles institutional marketing and licensing matters.
Bennett really never disliked orange. Typical of a superstitious coach, Bennett was just scarred by the Cavaliers’ most recent performance in the color, a 67-49 loss at home to Duke University on Feb. 28, 2010, during his first season at UVA.
“That game just left a bad taste in his mouth,” Althoff said, “and he didn’t want to go back there.”
Despite subtle prods about orange from his players, assistant coaches and other staff members – plus fans who would occasionally pepper him about it during his radio call-in show – Bennett stayed true to his word. Since March 1, 2010, his Cavaliers stuck to a traditional white uniform at home and a navy uniform on the road.
A third (still non-orange) option almost surfaced. An alternate navy jersey, which replaced “Virginia” across the chest with a large V-Sabre logo, was to be worn for the Hoos’ game at Wake Forest University on Jan. 26, 2016, but Bennett, at the last minute, decided against it. UVA famously went on to win that game, thanks to a furious rally and buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Darius Thompson.
“I’ve always thought had we worn those (and the game played out exactly like it did),” Althoff said, “there would have been a mystique with that uniform, and he always would have wanted to wear them.”
But, alas, the Virginia men’s basketball team remained one of the few programs on Grounds without at least a third uniform option.
Now it has four.
Althoff said Bennett was sold on the new uniforms, particularly the orange set, paying tribute to the program’s rich history.
“It was a big part of the push, for sure,” Althoff said. “Like, ‘Coach, this isn’t just something we want to do. This is something the University and everybody wants to get behind. We hear the fans. We hear what the people want – they want orange.’”
After some back and forth on design – Althoff said they tinkered with a patriotic jersey to debut for the season opener on Veteran’s Day against Campbell University – the two new uniforms were finally approved and then ordered in the summer.
Tyler Jones, UVA’s deputy athletics director for external operations, remembers Bennett approaching him at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Hardie Football Operations Center and confirming his commitment.
“I think he was most excited about the orange and what it meant and its reverence for the past,” Jones said. “And I think he kind of was getting a sense of the narrative and was excited to debunk that a little bit.
“He pulled me to the side, and was like, ‘I’m all in on the orange alternate.’”
