Why Houston men’s basketball rarely wears Cougar red

Red is a staple of Houston men’s basketball’s branding, but hasn’t been a staple of their game-day wardrobes.

Before a February 2024 road trip to Colorado, Houston was riding a four-game road winning streak. With less than a month left in the regular season, and the team still yet to debut its signature color, Houston chief of staff Lauren Sampson and her team briefly considered breaking out the red uniforms.

“We went to LJ and J’wan prior to Colorado,” Sampson said. “We’re like, ‘Hey, do you guys want to wear red at Colorado?’ and they looked at us and they were like, ‘No, we haven’t lost,’ and we went, ‘Understood — we’re packing the back.’

Houston continued to pack black on all its road trips and became the first school to finish a season with a 10-0 Big 12 road record.

The Cougars also wore the uniform when they advanced to their first national championship game since 1994, pulling off an improbable comeback against Duke and securing a perfect 12-0 record when wearing black.

While there is a chance the Cougars’ red uniforms will return to the road for the 2025-26 season, red uniforms remain retired from home games.

In fact, the team has only worn red once at the Fertitta Center since the Sampson era began in 2014.

When ESPN’s College GameDay spotlighted Houston in March 2018, it seemed like the perfect time to make an exception and wear a road-exclusive scarlet uniform at home.

UFC beat the Cougars in red, effectively exiling the uniform from Fertitta Center ever since.

While a “red out” game is typically included in the Cougars’ schedule, it remains a fan-exclusive experience.

“We are a wildly superstitious program,” said Sampson. “We are driven by our superstitons.”