# Are Colgate University and Colgate Toothpaste Connected? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2013, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029 "2013-04-18T12:37:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029/1 "2013-04-18T12:37:43Z")
Yes, I googled it, and didn’t get a conclusive answer. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029/2 "2013-04-18T13:05:36Z")
Yes, they are. Colgate (of the toothpaste) donated to the school, hence the name. I have this from a Colgate alumnus, who wore a T-shirt with Mayan glyphs (from a Colgate expedition to Central America) that included a toothpaste tube. > [@](#): > > By 1908 they initiated mass selling of toothpaste in tubes. His other son, James Boorman Colgate, was a primary trustee of Colgate University (formerly Madison University). > **[Colgate-Palmolive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colgate-Palmolive)** > > The Colgate-Palmolive Company, commonly known as Colgate-Palmolive, is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health care, personal care, and veterinary products. > William Colgate, an English immigrant to America and devout Baptist, established a starch, soap, and candle factory on Dutch Street in New York City under the name Will... Extra bonus: The Administration building at Colgate, he told me, was the inspiration for the Addams family house. It’s an old house with the characteristic mansard roof. Apparently Addams went there. (Apparently there are other possible inspirations for that mansion, but Addams DID attend Colgate, so it’s hard to think it didn’t influence him [Charles Addams - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Addams) ) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029/3 "2013-04-18T14:05:56Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Yes, I googled it, and didn’t get a conclusive answer. For future reference, I [googled “Colgate University”](https://www.google.com/search?q=Colgate+University+&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-ContextMenu&ie=&oe=), went to the [wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colgate_University), read the first paragraph that said " It is named for the [Colgate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Colgate) family who greatly contributed to the university’s endowment", clicked on “Colgate” to go to William Colgate’s page, where it shows that he created the Colgate soap company. If I’d gone with the first google result, [Colgate University’s website](http://www.colgate.edu/), and clicked on “[About Colgate](http://www.colgate.edu/about)” at the top of the page, and gone to the “[Past Present and Future](http://www.colgate.edu/about/past-present-and-future)” link, where it states: > [@](#): > > In 1823, Baptists in New York City - \*\*soapmaker William Colgate among them \*\* [emphasis mine] - consolidated their seminary with the Hamilton school to form the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution. The Colgate family connection was thus established. > > The oldest building on our current campus, West Hall, was built four years later in 1827. Students and faculty, working together, built the new structure from stone pulled from a quarry on campus. > > We changed our name in 1846 to Madison University and became Colgate in 1890, recognizing nearly 70 years of continuous involvement by the Colgate family. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029/4 "2013-04-18T14:52:01Z")
some of the buildings on campus are: Total Advanced Whitening Student Union Optic White Science Hall Max Fresh Arts Building Sensitive Residence Hall the biomass Triple Action Heating Plant ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029/5 "2013-04-18T15:55:08Z")
[Dr. Dre] Before you kiss her use COLGATE! [/Dr. Dre] ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029/6 "2013-04-19T16:28:42Z")
All the exams are orals. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029/7 "2013-04-19T18:10:21Z")
Here’s one I’ve never been able to substantiate (but I’d love it if it were true): Collegiate football booster squads have been known in the past (and possibly still are) to reserve a block of seats in the stadium, and fill them with members holding huge pieces of cardboard (usually dark on one side and light on the other). In a bit of elaborately staged choreography, the people would hold up their cards over their heads, showing light or dark shade, depending on where the member was sitting, so that people on the other side of the stadium would see a spirited message, such as the name of the booster squad’s team, or school. So, in the story I heard, Colgate University had a game scheduled against a rival university, where, whatever opinion you wanted to hold about their football team, had a truly excellent math department. So, some genius prankster broke into the offices of the Colgate Booster squad, found the document with the seating assignments, and switched in one of his own design. Come Game Day, it was time for the Colgate Boosters to display the word “COLGATE” to their rivals across the gridiron. Thanks to the genius saboteur, however, what they displayed was “PEPSODENT”. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029/8 "2013-04-20T13:23:20Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Come Game Day, it was time for the Colgate Boosters to display the word “COLGATE” to their rivals across the gridiron. Thanks to the genius saboteur, however, what they displayed was “PEPSODENT”. Doubt it. Googling “COLGATE UNIVERSITY PEPSODENT FOOTBALL” gives no relevant hits with this thread being the number one hit (perhaps this has something to do with my own browsing history). This is probably a local urban legend somehow corrupted from the legendary Cal Tech prank at the Rose Bowl. > **[Great Rose Bowl Hoax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Rose_Bowl_Hoax)** > > The Great Rose Bowl Hoax was a prank at the 1961 Rose Bowl, an annual American college football bowl game. That year, the Washington Huskies were pitted against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. At halftime, the Huskies led 17–0, and their cheerleaders took the field to lead the spectators in the stands in a card stunt, a routine involving flip-cards depicting various images for the audience to raise. However, a number of students from the California Institute of Technology managed to alter the ca... ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-colgate-university-and-colgate-toothpaste-connected/656029/9 "2013-04-20T16:16:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Extra bonus: The Administration building at Colgate, he told me, was the inspiration for the Addams family house. It’s an old house with the characteristic mansard roof. Apparently Addams went there. (Apparently there are other possible inspirations for that mansion, but Addams DID attend Colgate, so it’s hard to think it didn’t influence him [Charles Addams - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Addams) ) Wow! I had no idea there was that much history behind the Addams Family. I thought it was just a 1960s TV show…