Historical Football Kits

• Club
• Background
• Kits
• Sources

Grimsby Town

Formed 1878

Founder members of Division Two. Failed re-election 1910.
Elected back into Division Two 1911. Failed re-election 1920.
Founder member of the Third Division 1920. Relegated to the Blue Square Conference 2010

Kit History

Background

When the club was formed in September 1878 at a meeting in a public house by members of Worsley Cricket Club. They were called Grimsby Pelham FC after a local landowning family but a year later they became Grimsby Town.

At some point the original narrow hooped jerseys were replaced by chocolate and blue halves: these bore what appear to be the Grimsby coat of arms. It is possible that this only appeared in 1889, when the town became a county borough.

In 1890, the club adopted professionalism and joined the Football Alliance. In 1892 the Alliance was incorporated into the Football League as the Second Division. Since 1899 the club has played in neighbouring Cleethorpes. Contemporary references describe their shirts variously as either chocolate and blue or cardinal red and blue. In the absence of other evidence, these are presented as chocolate and blue, since there was often confusion when describing dark red or brown colours among journalists.

In 1901 Grimsby won the Second Division championship and for the next two seasons they played in the First Division before relegation in 1903. At the end of the 1909-10 season, they failed re-election and were replaced by Huddersfield Town. The old chocolate and blue shirts were replaced with black and white stripes, which have become the club's signature kit to this day. After a single season in the Midland League, which they won, Grimsby were elected back into the League by a single vote at the expense of Lincoln City. Despite this rapid return, they failed to make much impression and in 1920 they finished bottom and were voted out for the second time. In a remarkable stroke of fortune they were invited to join the new Third Division (formed by incorporating the First Division of the Southern League). When the League was further expanded a year later with the formation of Division Three (North), Grimsby transferred to the northern section.

In 1926, the Mariners won their division and with it promotion back to the Second Division. Three years later they were promoted back to the First Division. Aside from two seasons back in the Second (1932-33 and 1933-34), they remained in the top division until 1948, appearing in the FA Cup semi-final in 1936 and 1939.

Grimsby's decline in the 1950s was dramatic. Relegated from the First Division in 1948, they were seeking re-election to the Third Division (North) in 1955. The following season they were champions and were promoted back to Division Two were they stayed for four seasons. The so called "cod war" dispute with Iceland in the late 1950s struck a severe blow at the traditional trawler fleet that provided the basis of Grimsby's industry. As the local economy suffered so did the football club's fortunes.

In the early 1960s the striped shirts were discarded for a modern interpretation of the 1906 kit and in this outfit they returned to Division Two in 1962. Another crash followed and in 1969 the Mariners were once again forced to seek re-election. 1972 brought the Fourth Division championship but they were back in the lowest division in 1977.

For the new season, the club crest was added to the team's shirts, where it has remained unchanged ever since. The principle motif shows the club's traditional black and white stripes with stylised drawings of a trawler and fish picked out in red (the traditional third colour), representing the historical importance of the fishing industry to the town.

Successive promotions (1979 and 1980) took them back to the Second Division but then in 1987 and 1988 they were relegated and back in the Fourth. Remarkably, they repeated the successive promotions in 1990 and 1991.

In 1997 they were relegated from Nationwide Division One (the old Second Division) but came back via the play-offs the following season. History repeated itself between 2003 and 2004 when Grimsby plunged down the divisions once more.

After struggling during the 2009-10 season, Grimsby were relegated to the Conference.

Sources

• (a) Grimsby Town F.C - The Official History 1878 to 2000 (Dave Wherry) - provided by Richard Owen.
• (b) Football Focus
• (c) Hull City FC - Images of Sport (C Elton)
• (d) Workington AFC - Images of Sport (Paul Eade 2003)
• (e) Leyton Orient FC - Images of Sport (Neilson N Kaufman)
• (f) Bristol Rovers FC - Images of Sport (Mike Jay)
• (g) empics
• (h) Kit Classics
• (i) Football Cards
• (j) Aldershot Has It Website
• (k) Southend United FC (Images of Sport: Peter Miles & David Goody)
• (l) Grimsby Town Official Website
• (m) Mighty Mighty Whites
• (n) Association of Football Statisticians - provided by Pete Wyatt
• (o) David King
• (p) Football League Review provided by Simon Monks
• (q) Alick Milne
• (r) Topical Times Cards
• (s) Simon Monks
• (t) Fabrizio Taddei (Errea)
• (u) My photo library
• (v) Steve Browne
• (w) Matt Keenan
• (x) Keith Ellis (HFK Research Associate)
• (y) Christopher Worrall
• (z) Nolan Bennett
• (A) Warren Lyons

Team photograph courtesy of Football League Grounds For A Change (David Twydell 1991). Crests are the property of Grimsby Town FC.