Brown and Gold Spirit in Every Step

The University of Wyoming Alumni Association sponsored the first Tracing Our Roots Virtual 5K Walk/Run for alumni and friends in June, commemorating the association’s first meeting 125 years ago. The exact same date in 1895 also is when UW’s school colors were inadvertently selected.

Only four years after the first class of 14 students graduated from UW in 1891, the university’s handful of graduates recognized the importance of establishing an organization to nurture alumni relationships.

The UW Alumni Association (UWAA) formed on March 26, 1895, with eight graduates in attendance and—two weeks later on April 15, 1895—adopted the first official constitution and bylaws to “promote the University interests and the affiliation of its graduates.”

The leadership wasted no time in generating interest and enthusiasm for the UWAA by holding an annual meeting and banquet in the Ladies’ Study Hall on June 20 of that year. Thanks to the initiative and foresight of these few alumni, the UWAA was launched, and the mission remains the same as established 125 years ago.

While the first meeting was significant for the association, it was also significant for UW more broadly because it was at that meeting in June 1895 that the school colors were inadvertently chosen. Funds were unavailable for decorations, so two banquet organizers traveled to Laramie Springs looking for native flowers. They came back with a buggy full of Brown-Eyed Susans. The alumni were so impressed with the brown and gold and the beauty of the flowers that they decided to select these as UW’s official school colors. Today, faithful Wyoming alumni and fans all over the world wear the brown and gold with pride.

The Tracing Our Roots Virtual 5K Walk/Run allowed attendees to complete the race at their leisure from any location. Race bibs were specially designed for registrants and their dogs. A total of 330 people from 25 different states in the U.S.—as well as two international registrations from Saudi Arabia and Japan—participated in the virtual 5K.

“We had so much fun on Saturday,” race participant Kevin Bowen said, “and my father was beyond excited! We started the morning off with a great rendition of ‘Ragtime Cowboy Joe’ led by my brother on his ukulele, then we ran/walk/jogged several laps around Manning State Forest in Billerica, Mass., until we hit our 3.2 miles!”

“This was fun, and I got lots of waves (socially distanced) along my selected 5K route,” said Barb Keener (’70, M.A., communication and journalism). “The race bibs were a big hit, especially my dog Webster’s, which he wore around his collar.”

The alumni association was elated with the sizeable turnout, and as a result of this successful first year, the 5K will be an annual celebratory event for alumni and friends. Next year’s virtual 5K walk/run will take place Sunday, June 20, 2021.