best Caterpillar trivia question I've ever learned... Why did the Caterpillar company decide to switch it's official colors to yellow and black, from gray and red?

Because yellow and black are the universal caution colors.

but also intriguing is that the Caterpillar basketball team from the 1950s, (the Peoria Cats) made up of all Caterpillar employees won the gold medal in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.