Historical Football Kits

4 March

I am very grateful to Michael West of the Yeovil Town Heritage Society for sharing the fruits of his research into the history of Yeovil Town's kits. As a result I have updated the Glovers' section with nine previously unrecorded kits, several corrections and revised dates between 1895 and 1975. The photograph shows the Yeovil team from 1908-09 with the Dorset League champions trophy.

Photo credit: Bygone Yeovil Facebook

Barnet (1972-75 added), Maidstone United (1981-82 added), Bury (1981-82 missing tape added to shirt).

This photograph is of the Barnet team of 1972-73, complete with excessive face furniture and kipper ties. Those were the days.

2 March

My sincere apologies for the total lack of activity on the site for the past several months. This was due to a bout of poor health in December followed by a truly memorable holiday in West Africa in January. As a result I'm afraid I rather lost my motivation but as Spring approaches I shall once more pick up the reins (does a website have reins?) and resume updating.

I'll start by working through some of the items that have been sitting in my in tray.

Newcastle United's official historian, Paul Joannou, wrote in his programme notes a while ago that when the team joined the Second Division in the 1893-94 season no fewer than seven of the 15 teams in that division wore red. When the team travelled to Woolwich Arsenal for their opening match, the visitors wore blue and white striped shirts as shown here. These served as an alternative for the rest of the season but the requirement to change frequently prompted the committee to adopt black and white stripes for the following season with dark blue knickers. And the rest is history.

Photo credit: chroniclelive.co.uk

Robin Horton has found these snippets in contemporary press reports: Burnley (red socks worn in 1890-91), Middlesbrough (wore white shirts and navy knickers until 1901 when their red change jerseys became first choice).

I'm grateful to John Bremner who found this photograph of Rangers lining up at Nou Camp to play Barcelona during their May 1956 tour of Spain. This gives us an excellent view of the large "R" worn on the players' shirts. Contrary to expectation this is not rendered in a conventional font but a rather unusual rope like design. It has been suggested that these tops were borrowed from a local team and this feature lends some credence to this idea. While researcing this image I also came across a photograph taken in November 1956 when Rangers met OGC Nice in a European Cup First Round play-off. Once again a crest is in evidence and while it is difficult to make it out from the grainy image it does appear to be a version of the familiar RFC monogram but with considerably fatter lettering.

Photo credit: The Rangers Archive