AUSTIN, Texas — Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte turned down an all-black uniform concept for the Texas Longhorns on X on Tuesday morning, four days before the season opener against Texas State.
The rendering he replied to put the Longhorns in a black helmet, a black jersey, and black pants. Del Conte answered it at 9:36 a.m. CT and attached a video of game-day footage of Texas in burnt orange.
“No sir… Embrace the tradition that is Texas!” Del Conte wrote.
Former Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant was among those who posted in support of black Texas uniforms.
Texas wears burnt orange jerseys with white pants at home and all white on the road. The “Texas” wordmark above the numbers was added in 1980.
Chris Del Conte’s Town Hall Answer On Alternate Uniforms
Del Conte has held the job since December 2017. Before Texas, he was TCU’s athletic director from 2009 to 2017.
At his virtual town hall on Feb. 20, 2023, he took a question about wearing an alternate uniform for one game each fall. His answer was no. Del Conte said that at his previous stops he changed uniforms a thousand times, and that with Arizona, TCU, and Oregon he did not know who was on the field half the time he turned on the channel. Andrew Lind of SportsLogos.Net transcribed the answer.
“As long as I’m working for you and I work at the University of Texas, there’s two colors: burnt orange and white,” Del Conte said. “If God wanted a multicolored sunset, He’d have made it purple, green, yellow, black, red. He made it orange.”
“When the sun rises, it’s burnt orange. It’s perfect,” Del Conte continued. “Why would we want to do that? We’re the most traditional program in the country. We have a great logo. We have great colors. It’s unique. Darrell Royal said these are work uniforms. We don’t need to candy this stuff up. I firmly believe that.”
“When you look at the University of Texas from afar, and it’s us, USC, Alabama, Penn State, they don’t change,” Del Conte added. “There’s something to be proud about that.”
“Every time you turn on the channel and you look across, you know who the University of Texas is,” Del Conte noted. “That is what it’s all about. I always tell our kids, ‘Embrace who we are.’ It’s not old. It’s not stuffy. It’s Texas. It’s the best.”
Texas has worn one-off looks before. Lind listed the Nike Pro Combat set in 2009, the gold-trimmed Red River design in 2013, and the 1969 national championship throwbacks in October 2019, the last of those during Del Conte’s tenure.
Black Jerseys Have Been On The Practice Field Since 2012
In March 2012, under then-athletic director DeLoss Dodds, Nike gave Texas practice uniforms that mixed black in with burnt orange and white, with “Eyes Of Texas” stitched on the back of the black collar. Chip Patterson of CBS Sports reported the three jersey combinations could be paired with orange or black pants.
Per Luerssen, Nike had been selling black third jerseys to other partner programs at the time, and there were suggestions Texas adopt one for a special occasion. Dodds’ compromise was to keep black on the practice field. Texas quarterbacks still wear black jerseys in practice.
The game jersey did change this summer. On June 16, Joe Cook of Inside Texas reported the SEC patch had moved from the right side of the chest to the center of the collar, based on photos Texas defensive back Wardell Mack posted to his Instagram story. Cook reported Del Conte had named the move as one of his goals at his February 2026 town hall. CJ Vogel of On Texas Football reported the school said it was unaware of any plans to put a corporate sponsor logo in the vacated chest space.
Before the 2022 season, Texas took the television numbers off the shoulders and removed the Longhorn logo from the collar, according to Cook.
Texas opens against Texas State on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Ohio State visits Austin on Saturday, Sept. 12, at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC.
