Color me embarrassed: It’s burnt orange, not brown

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OK, OK, I get it: Brown is the name of the Texas coach. Burnt orange is the color of the uniform.

Just in case I didn’t understand it before, Tim Hester, sitting in the back of his truck near the Rose Bowl’s parking lot F, made sure I understood it now.

‘What’s wrong with you eyes,’ Hester said between draws on a beer.

As Hester, from the Texas hill country, and his cousin Bob, from Hawaii, waited for the stadium gates to open before today’s BCS championship game between No. 2 Texas and top-ranked Alabama, they discussed all things Longhorn football. Including the color of the team’s uniform.

‘It’s burnt orange!’ Bob Hester thundered before another Hester, Casey, clarified things, conceding that burnt orange is ‘mixture of brown and orange.’

So calling it brown or orange isn’t technically incorrect. It’s just offensive, Casey said.

‘We grew up with it,’ Casey said, calling the color traditional.

‘It’s like Oklahoma maroon and Alabama maroon,’ he said. (Note to Alabama and Oklahoma fans: That was Casey Hester talking. I have always called the color ‘crimson,’ just like you do. So no nasty e-mails, please.)

In any case, after a few minutes of prodding on my part and a few minutes of drinking on their part, the Hesters seemed to relent. Pulling the sleeve of Tim’s new Texas sweatshirt -- a gift from his wife, a Texas A&M fan (school colors: maroon and white, not crimson) -- up against Bob’s older Longhorn polo, the cousins conceded that the colors didn’t match.

‘Now if you put them together --,’ Bob muttered, unsure which shirt was burnt and which was orange.

Added Tim, helpfully, ‘they actually have one that’s more peachy.’

So there you have it, Longhorn fans. Your color is officially burnt orange which, in the eyes of the most loyal fans, is either ‘a mixture of brown and orange’ or ‘more peachy.’

In any case, Texas will be wearing white tonight.

-- Kevin Baxter