Green and gold

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The Kangaroos team jersey.

Australian marathon runners wearing green and gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Green and gold are the national colours of Australia, as proclaimed by Sir Ninian Stephen, the Governor General of Australia on 19 April 1984. The exact colours were specified as being Pantone Matching System numbers 116C and 348C. Green and gold are also the traditional team colours of Australian national sporting teams. Nearly every current Australian national sports teams wears "The Green and Gold", although the hues and proportions of the two colours may vary between teams and across eras. It is widely believed that the colours were chosen because they are the dominant colours of Australia's floral emblem, the Golden Wattle.

The phrase Green and Gold is used exclusively in this context, even when the hues and proportions might be more accurately described in some other way, such as "yellow and green".

Teams that wear the green and gold include:

the Australian cricket team (one day cricket);
the Kangaroos (rugby league);
the Socceroos (men's football (soccer));
the Matildas (women's football (soccer));
the Wallabies (rugby union);
the Australian Summer Olympics team;
the Boomers (men's basketball);
the Opals (women's basketball);
the Mighty Roos (ice hockey).

Note: Since 1961, the Wallabies have worn a gold jersey with green lettering and trim; they changed from a primarily green jersey in order to avoid a colour clash with the Springboks of South Africa.

[edit] History

The first Australian national sporting team to wear green and gold was the Australian cricket team that toured England in 1899. The Australian cricket team continued to use the colours thereafter, and in 1908 the colours were ratified as the official team colours for future Australian cricket teams. During subsequent discussions by members of the New South Wales Cricket Association, the colours were reportly referred to as "gum-tree green" and "wattle-gold".

The Australasian Olympic team adopted "green and wattle" in 1908, but not every team played in the colours. In the 1912 Olympics, an official Australian uniform was adopted for the first time: green vests with gold trimming, and white shorts with green and gold trimming. The Kangaroos adopted the green and gold in 1929, with other teams following.

[edit] Other instances

The Green and Gold are also the team colors (and one of the nicknames) of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League in the United States and the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.

In baseball, green and gold were the innovative team colors introduced in 1963 by the Kansas City Athletics (since 1968 the Oakland Athletics). At the time, tradition-bound baseball rarely saw uniform colors other than blue, red, black, and white. Athletics owner Charles O. Finley introduced the new colors as one of many gimmicks to set his team apart and attract attention. Today, baseball uniforms feature diverse colors, and the Athletics still wear green and gold.

The colors are also used by the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association, the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League and the sports teams of American universities William and Mary, Baylor, Charlotte, Colorado State, George Mason and South Florida.