I'm sure red was going to get to this. But actually, maroon is derived from French "marron." (chestnut) The first recorded use of maroon as a color in English was in 1789. In the early 40's, maroon was adopted as the color of choice by the bulldogs after discovering it was also a favorite epithet used by that wascally wabbit in those beloved Loony Toons cartoons.
IIRC, we played in Starkville on a Thursday night in 2007 and wore purple, then proceeded to lay a 45-0 pasting on the pups. That season ended ok. Hopefully, history repeats itself.
