Nicknames and Colors

Centre's football and basketball teams have been called the Colonels since at least since 1919. Prior to this the teams were known as the Gold and White. The legend is that George Joplin originated the name, feeling that a football team as good as Centre's was at the time should have a better name. Joplin was the Danville correspondant for the Louisville Courier-Journal, and later editor and publisher of the Somerset, Kentucky, newspaper. He later recalled that the name he choose "commands respect, it is indicative of a gentleman, yet one who will fight if he has to." The yearbook of 1920 refers to the football team as the “praying-fighting Colonels,” and the 1922 yearbook has the first use of the Praying Colonels. Today's athletic teams, both men's and women's are called the Colonels.

The 1907 yearbook refers to Centre’s athletic teams as the Cardinal and Blue. The 1917 yearbook first calls the teams the Gold and White. Even though Centre's athletic teams today use black to a significant extent in their uniforms, the school colors are not black and gold, but the "official" colors remain gold and white.