School Colors

   De Leon High School did not select the school colors, maroon and white.  They were inadvertently selected for the school by the owner of the Dependable Store.

    During the first three football seasons, the players took the field in whatever type of football uniform they could individually afford to purchase.  If anything matched, it was simply circumstance, for the school had no money to purchase uniforms.

     When De Leon agreed to play Greenville for the State Championship in December 1917, Greenville paid De Leon $500.  The first thing that the money was used for was to get “uniforms”.  Coach Lyman Forrest and the fourteen team members went to the Dependable Store to purchase matching jerseys.  The store was located at the northwest corner of Texas and Gonzales, where De Leon Auto is today.

    There was only one type of jersey that the store had in sufficient quantity to supply the entire team.  It was a maroon cotton turtleneck style sweater with two horizontal white stripes.  Maroon and white was worn for the first time on December 7, 1917 in the championship game against Greenville. 

    The following spring, the Class of 1918 held its graduation ceremonies in a new high school building which was constructed of such a dark red brick that the building looked to be maroon with white trim.

     And the old “Dependable” maroon and white has been the colors of De Leon High School ever since.

The 1917 team with their new maroon and white jerseys.