College flags list amongst the most collectible of memorabilia, with a wide range of designs that reflect the unique heritage of each individual institution. Officially licensed college flags and pennants guarantee authentic insignia as well as quality design, and they provide a source of revenue that goes back to support the school. You can purchase flags or pennants to hang by the door of one’s house or show in one’s garden as well as banners that could be streamed over an entrance or across the yard. Two-ply constructions allow designs to be seen correctly from either side.
But most varieties of college flags are frequently to be found at intercollegiate games, especially football games. They are utilized by the fans to cheer on their team, and waving them is symbolic of the school spirit. One well-known activity while waving them is to sing the school’s fight song en masse. In fact, it is hard to conceive of a college flag apart from that college’s fight song. One would seem incomplete without the other.
Thus, you can find hundreds of fight songs, just as there are hundreds of flags. Sometimes both are equally old and hallowed, and sometimes each is of vastly different vintage. The oldest fight song in generally recognized to be Boston College’s “For Boston” of 1885, but it is not certain which is the oldest college flag. Indeed, it is not certain when the tradition of college flags and pennants began, although one may safely imagine that their origins roughly coincided.
Speaking of origins, a lot of flags have changed over the years owing to cultural advances that made it unacceptable to feature mascots based on racial stereotypes or designs integrating the old Confederate Battle Flag. Many alumni protest, but eventually new generations of students with no sentimental attachment to old symbols make the revised styles their own.