Dayton Flyers cross country team looks back on 2003 Chapel Blue uniforms

They still wear the uniforms every time they get together. They’ve worn them under tuxedos at weddings. There’s a photo of them smoking cigars and pipes together while wearing the uniforms. One of the uniforms is framed on a wall at Runner’s Plus on Brown Street near the University of Dayton campus.

Members of the 2003 Dayton Flyers men’s cross country team still bleed Chapel Blue after all these years because for one season — long before the UD basketball teams brought out that unique shade of blue on special occasions — they wore the color for every race.

Wesley Galamb, an Alter High School graduate who was a senior on the 2003 team, reached out to the Dayton Daily News last week after hearing the UD men’s basketball team would wear Chapel Blue uniforms for a game against Southern Methodist. He wanted to tell the story of how his team came to wear the color 19 years ago.

“I’ll just put it politely and say that we were not the most well funded of the varsity sports at UD,” said Galamb, starting the story.

Every five to six years, Galamb said, the team would get new uniforms. The coach at the time, Rich Davis, would let the team captain pick the running singlets when it was time to buy new ones.

Galamb, who now lives in Seattle, was the captain in 2003. Davis gave him a catalog with different styles, one of which was a uniform in Chapel Blue — or Columbia Blue, or Marianist Blue, whatever you want to call it. UD is referring to it as Chapel Blue these days because the top of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at the center of campus is painted in the same color.

“Being from Dayton originally, and having a little bit of a lens towards some of the history, I knew that was a color that was part of UD’s athletic department history,” Galamb said. “So we selected these really bright, kind of light blue jerseys, and because we were cross country, it sort of went under the radar when we ordered them.”

The Flyers made their season debut in a meet at Indian Riffle Park in Kettering. It was their one home meet of the season, so everyone from the athletic department showed up, Galamb said, and immediately took note of the jerseys.

“They were not happy because they did not conform to the approved color palette at the time,” Galamb said.

The runners, however, not only liked the design but also benefitted from the bold color. When running with hundreds of other runners in bigger meets, it can be hard to spot teammates. That wasn’t the case when they wore the Chapel Blue.

Galamb had a similar experience wearing bright yellow jerseys at Alter. The coaches found it easy to spot runners in the crowd. Teams like to run in packs and pull each other along, so there’s a benefit to knowing where your teammates are.

That advantage didn’t last. The athletic department let the team wear them for one season. Davis let the runners keep the jerseys after the season. That’s why they all still have them.

Dayton’s reintroduction of the color last week got the former Dayton runners talking in a group chat. They shared the old photos and remembered what the color meant to them.

“(The uniforms) just seemed to spark a ton of enthusiasm not only among our team but the community as a whole,” Galamb said. “I think a lot of people had been clamoring for the blue to come back.”