Historical Football Kits

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Burnley

Formed 1882

Founder member of the Football League 1888

Kit History

Background

Burnley started out as a rugby club known as Burnley Rovers (who wore, incidently, blue shirts with a white maltese cross and white knickers) but in 1882 the members decided to switch codes and dropped "Rovers" from their name. In 1886 the Prince of Wales called at Turf Moor on a visit to the town. Some time later Mr S MacFarlane presented the team with a set of white jerseys featuring a blue sash and to commemorate the visit but these were held back, according to contemporary press reports "while the fortunes of the club were somewhat under a cloud" and were first worn on 17 December 1887. (i) In 1888, Burnley were invited to join the newly formed Football League. The club made a poor start, being forced to apply for re-election in their first two seasons but they survived.

In January 1889, the players turned out in plain black shirts in a match against Derby County as a tribute to a players named Cropper who had been injured playing for Staveley FC the previous week and subsequently died.

In 1897, they were relegated and although they bounced back as Division Two champions the following year, in 1900 Burnley dropped back into Division Two.

Legend has it that in 1911 the committee decided to drop the supposedly unlucky green shirts in favour of the claret and blue associated with the famous Aston Villa. It seemed to do the trick: they won their first match in their new colours (3-1 v Stockport County on 3 September 1910) and two years later Burnley returned to Division Two. In 1914, they won the FA Cup. The First World War interrupted the clubs progress but in 1921 they carried off the Division One championship. The club then went into decline and in 1930, "The Clarets" were relegated to Division Two where they languished until after the Second World War. A change of colours this time to white and black in 1937 failed to do the trick.

The first post-war league season saw Burnley, now back in claret and blue, firing on all cylinders: they achieved promotion back to Division One and reached the FA Cup final only to lose 0-1 to Charlton Athletic. Throughout the Fifties, Burnley were established as a leading Division One side. In 1960, the club won their second League title (following which they were allowed to wear the town's crest on their shirts) and in 1962 they came close to the double, finishing as runners-up to Ipswich Town in the league and losing 1-3 to Spurs in the FA Cup Final. Burnley coninued to be a feared side for the rest of the decade, enjoying two European campaigns but in 1971 the bubble burst when the club was relegated to Division Two.

In 1973 Burnley won the Second Division championship and the following year they finished a respectable 6th in Division One and reached the FA Cup semi-final. Hopes that the glory days were about to return were shattered when Burnley were relegated again in 1976 and this time, they went into almost terminal decline. Ten years later the club had slipped into Division Four and in 1987 they were faced with relegation to the Conference on the final day of the season. Amid high emotion, Burnley beat Leyton Orient 2-1 to send Lincoln City down.

Since those dark days the club has rebuilt and steadily climbed back up the League ladder and when the new millennium arrived, Burnley were back in the second tier

Sources

• (a) Burnley FC (Images of Sport) by Ray Simpson
• (b) empics
• (c) Burnley FC Official Website
• (d) Football Focus
• (e) Preston North End Official Website
• (f) Bury FC - Images of Sport (Peter Cullen 1998)
• (g)The History Of The Burnley Shirt - photographic archive including a fine collection of modern shirts by Martin Pickering
• (h) Ralph Pomeroy
• (i) Peter Pomeroy
• (j) Pete's Picture Palace
• (k) Association of Football Statisticians - provided by Pete Wyatt
• (l) David King
• (m) Greger Lindberg
• (n) Alick Milne
• (o) Christopher Worrall
• (p) Fabrizio Taddei (Errea)