Historical Football Kits

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Alloa Athletic

Formed 1878

Elected to Scottish Division Two 1921

Kit History

Background

Originally formed as Clackmannan County, the club became Alloa AFC in 1879. There is some confusion over their name: recently information has come to light through the scottishleague.net forum that the press misinterpreted this as Alloa Athletic FC (they were in fact Alloa Association Football Club) and the name stuck. However, Alick Milne's research suggests that the club was registered as Alloa Athletic between 1883 and 1921, when they joined the Scottish Football League and registered as "Alloa". In 1997 that the club applied to the Scottish Football League to formally adopt "Alloa Athletic".

Alloa competed in the Central League prior to World War One, when the competition was suspended. After the war ended the Scottish Football League refused to reinstate the old Second Division and some of the member clubs joined the reformed Central League instead. Since this competition was independent, members could attract players by paying higher wages than those allowed under the maximum wage rules that applied to Scottish League clubs, a threat to their interests that could not be ignored. In 1921 the Central League, with Alloa among them, was incorporated as the new Scottish Second Division.

Between the Wars, Alloa played in orange and black but since 1947 they have generally played in black and gold hoops, although the older tradition has been revived on several occasions. They are inevitably known as "The Wasps."

They took the Second Division by storm, winning the championship by 13 clear points. This was the first season of automatic promotion and relegation so the Wasps immediately took their place in the Scottish First Division but they went down again the following season. In 1939, Alloa won promotion for the second time and were doing well before competition was suspended due to the outbreak of World War Two. When the League resumed in 1946, the league was restructured into three divisions and Alloa were unfortunate to find themselves placed in Division B (the second tier). From then on Alloa rarely finished above mid-table and when the League was again restructured with the introduction of the Premier Division in 1975, they went into the third tier (still called Scottish Division Two).

The switch from the old hooped tops to plain ones in 1972 was apparently a cost-saving measure and it was 27 years before anything like the traditional hoops would reappear.

The team started to wear a crest in 1985-86, taking its motif from their traditional nickname of "The Wasps". This was modified in 1994 to a rather more sophisticated design that placed the club's name in full on a scroll below a shield. The background colour of both these designs varied to match the shade the team's shirts.

In the late 1990s Alloa reached the First Division (now the second tier) but they could not sustain themselves at this level and spent most of their time playing in the Second Division (third tier). They did, however, win their first major trophy, beating Inverness Caledonian Thistle on penalties after a 4-4 draw in the Challenge Cup final of 2000.

In 2010 the club introduced a new crest with a rather jolly cartoon wasp as its centrepiece.

 

Sources

• (a) Alloa Athletic Official Site
• (b) e-bay
• (c) no.net
• (d) Colours of Football
• (e) Brian McColl
• (f) Pete's Picture Palace
• (g) Cowdenbeath.net
• (h) blue-brazil.co.uk
• (i) Classic Football Shirts
• (j) Airdrieonians FC - Images of Sport (Brian Bollen 2002)
• (k) SNSpix
• (l) Ralph Pomeroy
• (m) Alick Milne
• (n) jumpers4goalposts.com
• (o) Willie Kay
• (p) Donald Gellatly (HFK Research Associate)
• (q) Keith Ellis
• (r) Tony Sealey

Modern crests are the property of Alloa Athletic FC.