Fighting for the Black and Gold: the fourth line in our alma mater. However, according to the Harvey County Historical Museum, a century ago, this was far from what students sang in loyalty to the school. Instead, students chanted “Purple & Gold and the Lead We’ll Hold”.
Purple and gold were the first colors to represent NHS and remained so until 1945 when navy took the place of purple to resolve the problem of fading basketball uniforms. It was when John Ravenscroft left his position as basketball coach that new athletic director Curtis Fisher made an error ordering new uniforms in the correct colors. Oblivious to the mistake, Fisher was horrified when the uniforms arrived in a solid balck rather than a shiny navy blue.
“I know that when we order uniforms, we are able to be very specific about the colors that we want and where,” athletic director Brian Becker said.
As the company would not take the uniforms back, the school decided to settle with black and gold as the school colors.
“We would have to go through a process of talking to the Board of Education and getting input from students and staff,” Becker said. “There would be a big process associated with that. It wouldn’t just be, ‘Ah, we’re going to change our school colors.’”
While black and gold have remained the school colors for the past 62 years, Becker has mentioned interest in returning to traditional roots and maintaining a common gold tone for all school uniforms and merchandise.
“As you see today, we kind of have a mixture of our golds: we have some group that like what we call ‘Vegas Gold’ which is the shinier gold and then we are trying to get a little bit more back to our true colors, which is the ‘Collegiate Gold’- the more yellow gold,” Becker said. “I guess you can call me a little bit of a traditionalist, but I think that we should have some of our traditional roots involved and so that’s one reason why I’ve tried to push us back more toward the ‘Collegiate Gold’.”
Principal Lisa Moore said that she thinks the school colors play a key role in creating an identity for the school.
“When we talk about Newton High School, we bleed black and gold. That’s who we are,” Moore said. “I think that is pretty powerful for our athletes or anybody who is representing Newton High School. They truly understand that when they wear black and gold, that’s who they are.”

When students arrived to school after winter break, they were met with a new sight. Many locations, like the auditorium and the depot, had been freshly painted by the custodial staff. Custodian Heather Miller is one of the staff members who took the initiative on this project.
“Regardless if students are here or not, I am. It was exciting to paint but I was just doing my job,” Miller said.
The idea was first introduced by custodian Rob Wharton. Wharton and his peers wanted to get rid of the aged blues and greys seen throughout the building and replace them with colors correlating to the school.
“Rather than the halls be filled with dull greys and blues, why not spruce it up and add some Railer pride into our school,” Wharton said.
In addition to these painted walls, the staff is planning to add new signs highlighting the depot and signs pointing to both gymnasiums.
“[We wanted to do this] really to freshen up and make it feel clean and make it feel inviting,” Wharton said. “We want students to feel like school is a good place to come and make them feel good.”
With these new changes, Wharton hopes to have all the painting done by the end of summer while creating a sense of school pride to the building.
“When other teams come with their colors, I believe we should be proud of ours and showcase them,” Wharton said.
Rumors have been circulating about a possible color change for the school. However, according to Lisa Moore, the administration is not planning on altering the colors from black and gold to black and yellow.