Historical Football Kits

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Brighton & Hove Albion

Formed 1900

Founder member of Division Three 1920

Kit History

Background

Towards the end of the nineteenth century Brighton grew in importance through association with the Prince of Wales who built the famous Brighton Pavilion and as a seaside retreat for Londoners. In 1898 the town's first professional association football club, Brighton United, was formed and was elected to the Southern League First Division. United folded in March 1900 but some of the former members and players formed a new team which combined with North End Rangers and was named Brighton & Hove Rangers. After a season playing friendly and cup games, the club dropped "Rangers" from its name and was briefly was known as Brighton & Hove FC before adding "Albion" immediately before they joined the Southern League Second division for the 1901-02 season.

In John Vinnicombe's book, Albion - An Illustrated History (1978), the author suggests the new name may have been inspired by the association that one of the founders, John Jackson, previously had with West Bromwich Albion. Carder & Harris, describe Albion's colours in 1901-02 as "fisherman's blue" in their book, Seagulls - The Story of Brighton & Hove Albion (1993). Photographs in this book suggest these were a pale colour and were superceded in 1903 by darker shirts before the familar stripes were adopted in 1904. Chris Worrall's research for HFK indicates that the original Brighton United wore green and white and that when the new Brighton & Hove Albion were formed, they adopted black and white stripes.

Albion were soon promoted to the Southern League First Division and moved into the Goldstone Ground in Hove, a genteel town adjoining Brighton itself. In 1904 they adopted the blue and white stripes that have become the club's trademark but in a distinctly paler shade than worn today.

In 1911 Albion were Southern League champions and then defeated Aston Villa the champions of the Football League to win the Charity Shield and were dubbed, locally at least, "Champions of England." Ten years later, the Southern League First Division was absorbed into the Football League and Brighton became founder members of the new Third Division. It took 38 years for the club to win promotion but in the interim they earned a reputation as cup giantkillers, having beaten Everton, Sheffield United and Chelsea at the Goldstone Ground.

The Football Encyclopedia of 1934 records the club's colours as red, white and blue stripes but it has not been possible to corroborate this. Worrall has, however, established that a local gents' outfitter sponsored an FA Cup match in 1934 against Bolton and kitted out the Albion players in checkered (probably argyle pattern) stockings. These were met with universal derision by the crowd and never seen again (until they were reproduced in HFK's Room 101).

After the Second World War the club played in their old stripes shirts until 1947 when they switched to royal blue shirts with white sleeves. Clubs had to collect clothing rations to replace their kits at the time and it is possible that they were unable to source their traditional tops. The traditional twin crest of Brighton and Hove was adopted as the club badge, appearing on players' shirts for the first time in 1948. This reappeared several times in the Fifties and Sixties while a shield with the club's initials in calligraphic style was used in 1956-57 and 1958-59.

In 1958, Brighton won the Third Division South championship and for the next four seasons they played in Division Two only to fall all the way down to the Fourth Division in 1963. A change of strip had the desired effect in 1964-65 when Albion were Division Four champions with a remarkable average home gate of 18,000, proof of the potential drawing power of this south coast club. The twin crests were used for some seasons while a simple monogramme appeared in others up until 1972.

In 1972 they won promotion to Division Two for the second time but they were relegated immediately. Between August 1972 and May 1977, no crests were worn at all.

In 1973 the club's ambitious chairman, Mike Bamber, caught the national media's attention when he persuaded Brian Clough and Peter Taylor to take over fresh from guiding Derby County to the League championship. Clough moved on quickly but Taylor stayed to lay the foundation of a strong side. In 1974, wearing all-white (a kit worn for a single season four seasons earlier) the club was nicknamed "The Dolphins" (Brighton's coat-of-arms features the marine mammal) but this name did not stick. A crest was designed with a dolphin but it never appeared on the team's shirts.

Prior to a home game with their strongest rivals, Crystal Palace, visiting fans in the Bo'sun pub started a chant of "Eagles! Eagles!" A group of Brighton supporters responded with "Seagulls! Seagulls!" and this immediately became their recognised nickname. That season Alan Mullery took the team back into Division Two and the following year Albion narrowly missed out on promotion, Spurs taking the honours on goal difference. A new badge was introduced, featuring a seagull, which remained their official crest until 1998. At this time, an average of 25,000 fans packed themselves into the Goldstone Ground every other Saturday. In 1979, the club was promoted to the First Division where they would remain for four seasons. For some reason, the traditional striped shirts were abandoned during this period in favour of plain blue. In 1983, The Seagulls reached the FA Cup final and, despite having been relegated, famously held Manchester United to a 2-2 draw before crashing 0-4 in the replay.

Serious decline followed and in 1992, Brighton were relegated to the new Endsleigh Division Two, the old Division Three. This was the season that they adopted striped shorts to complement their striped shirts, a kit that was universally derided. Worse was to follow: a financial crisis led to the directors selling the Goldstone ground for development without a viable alternative stadium. Relegation followed and supporters mounted a two-year campaign to oust the board. In 1996 Albion narrowly avoided relegation to the Conference and almost certain oblivion in their final match. That year supporters created the Clubs in Crisis website, which has successfully mobilised community support not only for The Seagulls but for other League clubs faced with extinction because of the clash between financial interests and local supporters.

With a new board in control, a new badge was introduced to mark a fresh start in 1998 but nevertheless the club endured a two-year ground share arrangement with Gillingham FC, some 70 miles away in Kent. A campaign to return the club to their home town met with limited success when the temporary use of the Withdean Stadium was negotiated. While facilities were far from adequate, it did allow the club to return to Sussex in 1999.

Despite all these problems, Brighton is fortunate in having the strong support of the local community, which includes celebrity fans such as Norman Cook, otherwise known as DJ Fat Boy Slim, whose company, Skint Records, sponsors the club. In 2000-2001, the club celebrated its centenary and to mark the occasion, the twin crests were revived, this time in full colour and much larger than usual. After storming to successive championships 2001 & 2002, they climbed back to Nationwide Division One the old Second Division and have been moving between the second and third tier since then.

Meanwhile the campaign to secure a permanent home continues. In September 2007, some seven years after the first application for planning permission was submitted, and £1m spent on legal fees, work began on detailed construction plans for Brighton's new Falmer stadium.

For the final game of the 2007-08 season, the team wore a specially commissioned kit to mark the end of the club's ten-year partnership with Skint Records.

Sources

• a Seagulls Official Website
• b Football Focus
• c The West Ham United Collection 2003
• e Rotherham United FC - Images of Sport Gerry Somerton & Chas Robinson 2000
• f Gillingham FC - Images of Sport Roger Triggs 1999
• g Aldershot Has It Website
• h Kit Classics
• i Football Cards
• j Crewe Alexandra FC - Images of Sport Harold Finch 1999
• k empics
• l Kuen-Wah Cheung
• m Seagulls - The Story of Brighton & Hove Albion Tim Carder and Roger Harris - information provided by Kuen-Wah Cheung
• n The Football Encyclopaedia (Associated Sporting Press 1934) - information provided by Arthur Fergus
• o "Albion the First 100 years" Paul Camillin and Stewart Weir - information provided by Kuen-Wah Cheung
• p David King
• q Ralph Pomeroy
• r Alick Milne
• s Chris Worrall - HFK Research Associate
• t Fabrizio Taddei (Errea)
• u My photo library