Oregon State’s new color: Turquoise?

On Sunday, when Oregon State welcomes Texas Southern into Corvallis, the Beavers will have a different look about them.

Turquoise uniforms.

And no, its not because Oregon State lost to Seattle for the second straight season last night. (Hey, at least it was a three point loss on the road this year. That’s better than the 51 point mollywhopping [yes, that’s a word] they received in Gil Coliseum last season.)

You see, Nike has a division called N7 which exists specifically to try and help Native Americans get better access to sport. So what does Nike’s N7 division have to do with Oregon State? Lindsay Schnell explains:

Robinson started to learn a lot about Native American culture and the community when he was recruiting Joe Burton, a sophomore who is part of the Soboba Tribe. Since he arrived at Oregon State three seasons ago Robinson has been looking for OSU to support a special community cause, and N7 allowed the Beavers to do that.

“I didn’t know much about Native Americans until I started recruiting Joe,” Robinson said. “Joe is the type of person that people want to follow and I saw it firsthand when I recruited him and was taken out to the reservation.”

“The one thing that rang true is that in the Native American culture, sport plays a very big part there and it’s important on different levels. You see older folks play softball, you see young kids playing basketball. To be able to do something that helps bring sport and bring access to sport to kids all around the country, it’s really a pleasure to be a part of.”

Ok. I’m done with the snarky comments. This is actually a pretty cool idea.

I’m always for sports teams at any level doing what they can to help their community. Native American’s are a portion of our populace that need just as much, if not more, help than the public at large, yet you rarely read, here, or see much about it. (I guess this is where I have to link Dana O’Neil’s incredible article on the Haskell Indian Tribe from last season.)

Hopefully, Craig Robinson can help this cause. After all, he’s got a bit of influence. He’s the President’s brother-in-law.

So why the turquoise uniforms?

Turquoise is believed to be the symbol of friendship among Native Americans.

Hopefully, they will hold off on the peace pipe until after the game.