Origin of State Colours
Queensland Maroons & NSW Blues
Sean Fagan of RL1908.com
The short story is that the NSW and Queensland state teams of 1908 adopted the colours that they had worn in their pre rugby league days.
As with most of the founding rugby league clubs in Sydney, there was no decision of what colours to wear. Because rugby league emerged from the rugby community, there simply never was any consideration of a change from the traditional state colours.
Interestingly, the use of sky blue and maroon jerseys in inter-state clashes of the pre rugby league era (1882-1907) was far from settled. Throughout this period both NSW and Queensland varied their colours.
The use of sky blue (NSW) and deep red /maroon (Queensland) for team jerseys was not settled until 1895.
From the first clash in 1882, the colour of each colony (later state) was regularly varied. In the late 1880s the 'Queensland Blues' were playing against the 'NSW Reds'!
New South Wales
Until 1885 the NSW side wore 'heather green' which was the official colour of the Southern Rugby Football Union (later NSWRU). The jersey also included a white southern cross across the chest.
In 1887 the NSW team was wearing red scarlet jerseys which they appear to have used up to 1891. The choice of red is seemingly based upon following the colour of the Wales jersey, as the badge included a dragon symbol.
In 1892 the NSWRU resolved to specify the colony's team wear jerseys of "Cambridge blue". This suggests a strong possibility that the NSWRU was attempting to replicate the "blues" awarded by Cambridge University in England. Blue was already in use by the NSW cricket team (who played wearing sky blue shirts).
By 1897 the NSWRU playing strip was specified as: "navy-blue pants, light-blue jersey", which combined the colours of Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
Queensland Reds
The first Queensland team (1882) played a year before the Northern Rugby Football Union (later called QRU) was formed. The team wore the red and black jerseys of the Brisbane F.C. for their first match against NSW in Sydney.
In 1884 Queensland took on the chocolate coloured jersey of the (Brisbane) Wanderers club. The next change came in 1886 when the colony wore blue. The blue jersey included a large 'N' and 'U' inter-twined over the chest. In 1887 the chosen kit was a white jersey and shorts, with red socks.
The (dark) blue jersey returned for inter-colonial clashes against NSW in 1888 and appears to have been retained until it was last used in 1894. The white jersey was not totally discarded - it was used as a representative jersey against Great Britain (1888, along with a big 'Q' badge) and New Zealand (1893).
The revered deep red (or maroon) jersey made its first appearance in 1895, and the colour choice finally became permanent. Maroon is the official royal colour, and with Queen Victoria reigning at the time, it appears to be the source of Queensland's jersey colour.
References.
Sean Fagan, "Pioneers of Rugby League"
Ian Diehm, "Red! Red! Red! The Story of Queensland Rugby"
NSWRU / ARU archives |
