The Pitt Script stayed.

When Majors arrived on campus from Iowa State, taking over a team that had won only one of 11 games the year before, he decided to give the program a makeover in every way. He put together a real weight room, but he also wanted his team to look good on Saturdays.

“I looked at their uniforms, and I thought they were pretty dull,” Majors said.

So Majors redesigned them. The school colors are old gold and navy blue, but Majors decided that a mustard yellow and royal blue looked sharper — in part because Pitt would not resemble the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as much.

He added double “Northwestern stripes” (one wide stripe bordered by two thinner stripes) to the jerseys and a thick blue stripe, a nod to the N.F.L.’s Pittsburgh Steelers, to the pants. He wanted a helmet insignia that stood out in newspaper photos, on television and on magazine covers. Majors dreamed big from the start.

Majors liked the “Ucla” script insignia on U.C.L.A.’s helmets. So he told an artist, whose name he cannot remember, to draw something similar for Pitt.

When the uniform was assembled, Majors had two of his assistants, Jackie Sherrill and Joe Avezzano, model them in the press box at Pitt Stadium. The look lasted 24 seasons.

When Majors’s second stint as Pitt’s coach ended, the Panthers moved to navy blue jerseys with “Pittsburgh” in block letters on the front and shiny gold pants and helmets — which carried an insignia of a growling panther.