The
pink tie is the mascot, or symbol, or whatever bests fits the occasion, of the
Mathematics Faculty of the
University of Waterloo.
Legend has it that, in the days of yore (i.e the late 1950s), when the Faculty of Mathematics was first founded, the visionary behind the faculty had the outlandish habit of wearing dotted, striped, and otherwise odd ties. His favourite, the pink tie, was thus pronounced as the symbol of the faculty. When the Mathematics and Computer building opened in 1968, a giant 85-foot tie appeared on the outside of the building as a tribute to the founder. The tie has been hung on this building during every orientation week since then.
It has been replaced twice, once after being stolen by the Tie Liberation Organization in 1984, and again after being destroyed by an Engineering paint ball attack in 1986. Since those two events, the tie has been guarded for 24 hours a day whenever it's up by the tie-guard, an elite group of semi-alert and befuddled math students.
A regular-sized version of the pink tie is also given out to frosh in the Math Faculty.