Historical Football Kits

10 March: Contributions to our new World Cup 2010 section are rolling in: Denmark (2nd), Switzerland (1st), Slovakia (1st), Honduras (1st & 2nd) have been added.

I am continuing to work through Keith Ellis' epic contribution, which has included a good deal of material that helps pin down the confusing period in Blackburn Rovers' history, when blue appeared on both the right and left side of players' shirts. (1910-11 added today). The skinny chap featured here is perhaps the most influential player ever to have played for the Rovers, Fergie Suter. A stonemason from Glasgow, Suter was poached by Darwen from Partick Thistle in 1879 and was later induced to play for Rovers. Unable to pursue his trade in Lancashire because the local stone was unworkable, he nevertheless made a good living from illicit payments made by the club. Suter is now recognised as the first professional footballer.

Stirling Albion (2006-07 shorts corrected), Everton (1895-1901 collar fastening amended), Millwall (1895-96 collar fastening amended), Wolves (1899-1900 added), Portsmouth (1905 added), Liverpool (1905-07 amended - this we now know was a ribbed woolen jersey with a laced polo neck), Leeds City (1905-08 collar detailing amended and shade of old gold revised throughout), Hull City (1904-09 collar detailing corrected), Derby County (1909-10 collar detailing amended - the photographic evidence submitted by Keith Ellis for this, which we unfortunately cannot publish due to copyright restrictions, appears to corroborate Derby wearing black and white striped jerseys that season), Leicester Fosse (1910 added), Third Lanark (1910 added), Northampton Town (1899-1904, 1910-13 collar detailing amended), Preston North End (1884 collar detailing amended).

You can read an interview with your truly on footballshirts.co.uk.

9 March: Burnley (1934-35 socks corrected), Nottingham Forest (1907, 1947-48 added), Rochdale (2009-10 third kit added), Maidstone United (1965-66 added, 1975-78 corrected).

The photograph shows the Stones' team from 1921-22.

8 March: Sunderland (1886-1900 shirts more accurately drawn), QPR (1904-24 graphics now show the correct number of hoops), Hull City (1940 added), Blackburn Rovers (1905-06, 1923-24, 1928-29 added, several dates amended), Woolwich Arsenal (1904 added), Wimbledon (1923-31 dates amended), Huddersfield Town (1920-21, 1922, 1923-24, 1954-55, 1964 added, 1910-11 neck detailing corrected, 1925-26 socks corrected), Halifax Town (1971-72 added), York City (1958-66 dates amended), Hartlepools United (1964-1968 dates amended), Derby County (1923-24, 1926-27 added), West Bromwich Albion (1930-31 added), Middlesbrough (1947-48 added), Accrington (1880-81 added), Barnsley (1928-29, 1960-61 added), Birmingham (1932-33, 1933-34 added), Southend United (1926 added), Crystal Palace (1937-38 stripes now more accurate), Leicester City (1924-25 added). Thanks are due to HFK stalwarts Simon Monks and Keith Ellis for today's contribution.

7 March: New feature - today we are pleased to open our World Cup 2010 section. This is being posted as a work in progress and we call on our regular visitors to let us know as new strips are unveiled. Please note that we will only publish strips that we can confirm from official sources. There are far too many hoax images floating about. The World Cup is now a showcase for the best in design and there are some outstanding new strips on show. For your convenience and shopping pleasure, links are provided so you can purchase any replicas currently available.

Please remember that by purchasing replica shirts through our own links, you are supporting our website because we take a modest commission on each transaction at no additional cost to you.

We congratulate Dave Tomlinson who has uncovered photographic evidence and a contemporary press report that conclusively proves that Leeds City switched from their usual old gold and navy to green shirts in the 1910-11 season, in order to make their five new Irish signings feel at home. The club even introduced green flags at the half way line. Although the team photograph supplied (see left) is of poor quality, we can clearly see that the first team (on the right) are wearing the new green shirts while the reserves (on the left) are in the striped shirts worn the previous season.

Ironically, the Irish national side played in blue shirts at this time due to Unionist domination of the Irish Football Association. Green was the colour of Irish nationalism. History does not record which community the Irishmen recruited by Leeds came from but we can imagine that if they were Ulster protestants, the club's gesture would not have been entirely welcome.

3 March: The special edition kits worn in the Edinburgh derby on 3 January have been added to the SPL 2009-10 section.

2 March: Scotland's new home strip has been added.

I am very grateful indeed to Jeff Whitehead, Colchester United historian, who has provided details of every strip the team has worn since their formation in 1937 as well as missing crests. The U's section has, therefore, been thoroughly reviewed and updated.

28 February: Aston Villa are perhaps unique in that they persisted in wearing heavy woollen jerseys right up until they adopted the new "continental" cotton shirts in 1956. Although it is not evident in team photographs, close ups reveal that these jerseys were vertically ribbed and I have attempted to represent this in the graphics between 1894 and 1956. The photograph (left) shows the 1935-36 team wearing the very distinctive yoked collars worn between 1924 and 1956, which were unique to the club. The oversized collars were sometimes folded over as shown in our new 1947 change strip graphic.

There is a thoughtful article written by Simon Kupar in today's Observer regarding the debt-ridden state of professional football. He describes football clubs as "small businesses that spend like big ones, (that's why) they keep getting into trouble."

Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic (1960-61 added, 1956-57 cuff trim corrected), Barnet (1957-58, 1963-64 added), Swansea Town (1967-68 added, 1956-58 dates amended), Carlisle United (1969-70 crest added, 1964-66 dates amended), Burnley (March 1935 added), Sheffield Wednesday (1935-36 added).

27 February: The main story in the sports media today concerns Portsmouth, who became the first Premier League club to enter administration yesterday. While the survival of this famous club is by no means guaranteed, the prospects of a buyer being found are probably improved. The same cannot be said for Chester City who were yesterday expelled from the Blue Square Premier League. Over 75% of the members voted to kick the club out after the management admitted to breaching five competition rules. Although the club has the right to appeal, it seems unlikely that they will bother - the club was not represented at the meeting and the supporters umbrella group, City Fans United has been calling for the club to be wound up. With no fixtures for the rest of the season it seems doubtful that City will survive long enough for the winding up petition hearing in the High Court on 10 March.

26 February: I have been re-examining the Bolton Wanderers section in the light of several pieces of photographic evidence. First of all various written sources give the club's colours in 1912-13 as red shirts and white knickers. This photograph, however, shows conclusively that this is incorrect and the team wore white shirts with a narrow navy buttoned crew neck and cuffs. Furthermore, we have been able to establish that these shirts were also worn in 1911-12.

The second issue concerns references to Wanderers wearing black knickers with black and red socks sometime after the Second World War, which we have struggled to verify. Earlier information (from match programmes) that this was worn in 1952-53 is not borne out by the photographs we have seen but thanks to Keith Ellis, we now have solid evidence that places this outfit in 1949-50.

More from Keith's mountainous submission: Newcastle United (1894-97 revised, collar details on 1904-07, 1907-14 shirts captured, 1965-66 change added), Arsenal (1935-43, 1962-64 dates amended), Darlington (1950-51 added), Sheffield United (1892-1904 stripes now more accurate), Bradford City (1912-13 added, 1928-29 collars corrected, 1960-62 socks corrected), Carlisle United (1955 added), Oldham Athletic (1951-54 socks amended).

Among my favourite kits of all time are the "epaulette" shirts worn by Middlesbrough in the Twenties and early Thirties. Several different versions appeared - the example pictured on the left is from 1922. The idea was revived in 1964 and, in my view, is well overdue for another revival. (The 1905, 1955-56, 1962-63 Boro kits have been added.)

25 February: Plymouth Argyle (1948-49 alternate, 1963-64 added, 1955-56 corrected), Reading (1910-11, 1911-12 added), Port Vale (1948-50, 1952-54, 1957-58, 1958-59, 1962-63, 1965-66 added), Burnley (1892-93 alternate kit, 1922-23, 1923-24 added). The photograph is of the 1922-23 Burnley side wearing an unusual yoked jersey. A similar design was worn in season 1925-26 but with a laced crew neck.

23 February: Todays updates all come from Keith Ellis once more. West Bromwich Albion (1947-56 detailing amended), Swansea Town (1958 added), Newcastle United (1923-27 dates amended), Tottenham Hotspur (1923-24 added, dates 1919-1923 revised), Huddersfield Town (1963 added, 1952-55 detailing improved), Barnsley (1938-39 collar detailing amended.)

22 February: In the Forties and early Fifties socks were seriously big but perhaps none were bigger than those worn by Aston Villa shown here in 1952-53 (1943, 1958-59 added).

Liverpool (1946-47 socks corrected), Bristol Rovers (1956-57), Blackburn Rovers (1919-20, 1934-35 added, 1957-59, 1959-64 cuff details amended), Hibernian (1945-57 collar corrected), Bristol City (1965-66 added), Stockport County (January 1958 collar details amended), Manchester City (1954-55, 1955-56, 1958-59 stocking details amended), Blackpool's kits from 1927-28 and 1955-63 are now presented in the correct sequence, Tottenham Hotspur (1955-56 added).

21 February: Lots more from Keith Ellis today - Bolton Wanderers (1932-33 added - pictured left. The photograph illustrates the typical laced crew neck tops of the period; players habitually removed the laces. It is also noteworthy that the club crest, worn throughout the Twenties and second half of the Thirties, is absent. The contrast between Wanderers' navy knickers and black socks shows up well).

Huddersfield Town (1937-38 added, dates confirmed for 1927-36), Portsmouth (1956-57, 1957-58 added), Southampton St Mary's (1895-96 added), West Bromwich Albion (1919-25 dates amended), Blackburn Rovers (January 1923, 1924-25 added), Charlton Athletic (1921-22 added), Wigan Athletic (1954-55 socks and collars amended), Preston North End (1956-57 socks corrected and several dates amended between 1922 and 1936), Carlisle United (1950-51, 1959-60, 1963-64 added), Norwich City (1938-39 added), Peterborough United (1970-72 dates amended).

The written evidence I have seen indicates that Leicester Fosse wore navy tops 1904-11 but this picture (left), uncovered by Keith, shows conclusively that for the 1907-08 season at least, they wore mid-blue jerseys. The socks are also noteworthy for the unusual trim for the period. Leicester Fosse/City (1907-08, 1935-36 added).

Chelsea (1949-50 added), QPR (1946-47 added), Notts County (1961-62 added), Swindon Town (1905-06, 1910-11, 1959-60 added, 1923-24 socks corrected), Stoke City (1952-53, 1958-59 added), Walsall (1958-59 added).

Even more from Keith to come...

Andy Porter, Tottenham Hotspur's historian, has uncovered a contemporary club handbook that confirms the team wore navy knickerbockers with their dark chocolate and old gold shirts, 1896-98. The same document also provides evidence that Swindon Town wore navy rather than white knickerbockers 1897-99.

19 February: This intriguing and famous photograph of Barnsley St Peter's shows players wearing three different tops. According to the bbc.co.uk website, the club's original colours were navy and maroon stripes. This team picture is thought to date from 1889-90 and suggests that the team were wearing a much lighter shade than navy at this time. The seated player in stripes may be wearing the chocolate and white shirt that would be adopted in 1890 or perhaps an older one, which would cast doubt on the BBC's account. Careful examination reveals that two players have "BFC" (or possibly BStP) sewn onto their jerseys.

Sheffield United (1906-12 collar detailing added), Halifax Town (1957-59, 1965-66, 1966-67 added, 1960-62 dates amended), Tottenham Hotspur (1957 change strip added, badge on 1970-71 change strip corrected). We have Keith Ellis to thank these contributions as well as many others recently posted. Keith has got the bit between his teeth and has been researching material to fill in some of the gaps in our club sections.

Aston Villa (1998-99, 2004-05 change kit socks amended).

18 February: Sunderland (1958-59 added), Barnsley (1954-55 added).

16 February: The Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, has stepped into the debate we highlighted in our last post, calling on the FA to take a tougher stance against the abuses that have led to spiralling debt in the professional game. "We have challenged the FA, Premier League and the Football League on financial regulation over the last year and they have made some welcome rule changes," Sutcliffe told the Guardian, "but there remain tough questions for the football authorities on what more they need to do to tackle the issues around leveraged debt, takeovers and strengthening the financial governance of football clubs." For the full story visit The Guardian Online.

Darlington (1910-11 added - pictured left). More accurate crests have been added to the Colchester United graphics between 1983 and 2004. Aston Villa (1938 change strip added), Queen's Park (1981-82 added), Dumbarton (1978-1983 dates amended), Ross County (1984-87, 1990-92 added), Rangers (1994-95, 1997-98 away strip socks corrected).

The new England red "away" and The Republic of Ireland's new "home" strips have been added.

13 February: The failure of the football authorities to take action over financial mismanagement at professional clubs has led to a hardening of attitudes at HM Revenue & Customs this season, who are using the January transfer window, when clubs generate new funds from transfers, to force the issue. Portsmouth, Cardiff City and Notts County all face winding up petitions this month while Crystal Palace and Southend United have gone into administration. Accrington Stanley were forced into a change of ownership in the autumn and non-league Kings Lynn have been closed down.

Chester City have again fallen foul of the authorities because of gross mismangement and the City Fans United supporters have called for the club, currently suspended from the Blue Square National Conference, to be closed down.

Football clubs seem to believe that paying tax is optional rather than a legal obligation, blithely paying players tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds every week and not settling their tax bills. No-one likes paying tax but most of us accept that our schools, hospitals, police and armed services have to funded somehow. Why should football clubs be exempt?

Under FA rules, once a club enters administration, football debtors (clubs owed transfer fees, directors and players owed back wages and bonuses) are paid in full while non-football debtors (HMRC, Police Authorites and the myriad small businesses that supply goods and services to clubs) share what's left: if they receive 10p in the pound they are fortunate. Obviously when HMRC force a club into administration most of the tax owed, often millions of pounds, has to be written off but officials have no other sanction to force them to meet their obligations.

It is a scandal that directors who abuse their position are allowed to walk away, having usually extracted large sums of money from the clubs they have mismanaged, leaving the club in ruins and cheating the taxpayer, charities such as St John's Ambulance Brigade and local businesses of the revenue they are owed.

11 February: The excellent Marina Hyde has written a deliciously acerbic article about the new "England Away" shirt, ludicrously launched by Kasabian in Paris this week. Visit The Guardian Online for the full text.

Partick Thistle (2002-02 shorts amended), Luton Town (badge 1973-87 amended), Sunderland (1965 added), Plymouth Argyle (2000-01, 2007-09, 2009-10 details amended). The featured photograph is of Argyle in the kit they wore in the Sixties, for my money, one of the best outfits of all time.

10 February: Queen's Park Rangers (1987-88 added), Dumbarton (1987-88 detail added to sponsor's logotype), Arbroath (1992-94, 1994-95 makers' trademarks added, 1994-95 change kit added to Iconic Away Kits section), Raith Rovers (1995-97, 1997-98 correct makers' logos added), Scotland (1976-79 away kit corrected), Celtic's kit worn at Elland Road in the 1970 European Cup semi-final has been added. Coventry City's new limited edition third strip has been added. Umbro logo added to Rangers 1976-78 kit.

My thanks go to Richard Young for kindly providing artwork for the crests of Scunthorpe United, so I've updated the Irons' section out of sequence. (Similar contributions for lower divsions clubs in England and scotland will be much appreciated.)

Southampton FC historian, David Juson has informed us that the club wore navy shorts until 1950.

Scotland have signed up with Adidas, who will become their kit supplier until 2014.

6 February: Dredging the electric interweb for details of old club crests is turning up some choice pearls. For example, several previously unrecorded strips have been added to our Colchester United section thanks to the expanded historical section on the Colchester United website. Frustratingly, the images posted there are without captions so I have had to estimate dates and I am still searching for details of the crests worn by the team between 1972 and 1994. On the other hand, the official site now includes a history of Colchester Town, the club that folded when United were formed in 1937. This photograph, borrowed from the official club website shows Colchester Town in 1913 wearing extraordinary shirts of myrtle green, dark claret and white. I've added a graphic to our Strange Hues section.

3 February: In the course of researching his new history of Blackpool FC, On This Day (Pitch Publishing Ltd: Nov 2009 ISBN 1905411502) HFK Research Associate Peter Gillatt has uncovered a wealth of historic photographs and detail, which he has kindly shared with us. He has also posted some of these images on the Blackpool On This Day Website, from which this intriguing team group is taken, captioned "Blackpool FC 1881." The modern day Blackpool was not formed until 1887 so this must be a picture of one of the earlier teams that played in the town and folded before the modern club was formed.

Falkirk's third strip, used at Ibrox recently, has been added.

While researching club crests, I have learned that the badge worn by Burnley FC between 1887 and 1895 was the royal coat of arms rather than the Prince of Wales' three feathers crest as I had previously thought. The right to wear this crest was given to the club following a visit to Turf Moor by Prince Edward and it was worn in the 1914 FA Cup final. As far as I know, Burnley are the only football club to have been permitted to wear a royal crest.

29 January: Thanks to Simon Monks we have been able to establish that Yeovil Town, switched from their usual plain green shirts to ones with white sleeves especially for their FA Cup fourth round tie with Sunderland in 1949. The Cidermen's victory over the First Division side remains one of the greatest giant-killing feats in the history of the cup (Yeovil were then still a non-league side). Yeovil retained these shirts for the next decade but we can now reveal that the Yeovil Casuals team (from whom the modern team is descended) wore very similar shirts in 1904-05 (see photograph left).

Other updates: Details missing from Hibernian's current kits have been added, Birmingham City's third kit added, Grimsby Town (1987-89 added). Peter Gillatt, HFK's Research Associate for Blackpool FC has provided details of the crest used between 1987 and 1993 and a missing kit from 1963-64.

28 January: Following on from a suggestion made by Colin Barratt recently, we have started to add images of past and present crests to the narrative section of each club page. To date the Accrington Stanley to Birmingham City sections have been updated and more will be added today.

Further to the item published on 24 January below, Richard Sanders has confirmed that it was the Scottish FA who insisted that JH Forrest wear a differently coloured shirt to the rest of the England team in 1886. The Scottish Football Association was still dominated by the gentlemen-amateurs of Queens' Park FC who objected to playing against a professional. Indeed their hostility to professionalism meant that payments to players remained forbidden in Scotland until 1893. There is no record of just what Forrest wore in this match but I think it quite likely he used his Blackburn Rovers' club shirt.

24 January: Intriguing evidence has come to hand about the shirts worn by England in the late-Victorian period. In his splendid history of the birth of British football, Beastly Fury, Richard Sanders records that the first acknowledged professional to be chosen for England, JH Forrest, was forced to wear a differently coloured shirt to his amateur gentlemen-players in 1886. Glen Isherwood has also uncovered evidence that the England team may have switched to dark shirts for an unofficial international against a German XI in 1901. Further details are in our England 1872-1939 section.

The photograph is of the England team of 1876, probably the oldest existing image of the team, courtesy of bygonderbyshire.co.uk.

Jyll Skinner recently wrote in asking about the terms "football strip" and "football kit," wondering why "uniform" is not used and whether "strip" might derive from "stripe". The term "Football Kit" refers to the players' entire equipment - shirt, shorts, socks, boots, shin pads and (ahem) jock-strap. ("Historical Football Kits" is something of a misnomer but we wanted to avoid "strip" in the title as we thought this might turn up in search engines in a rather inappropriate way.) "Uniform" is American English and is rarely used in the UK where the term "strip" is preferred. I believe this stems from the use of the verb "to strip" to describe players "stripping" before a game. I do not believe there is any connection with the term "stripe."

Bryan Culshaw has threatened to eat his entire programme collection if we don't change Everton's change shorts from blue to yellow between 1979 and 1982. So we have.

Luton Town's 1974-79 Admiral strip has been added to our Classic Kits section.

17 January: Graham Warner has pointed out that Wolves wore a special outfit with fluorescent shirts in their pioneering frendlies against European opposition in the 1950s. The photograph is taken from footage of the team wearing these spectacular strips in action against Spartak Moscow on the British Pathe website.

We have confirmed that Yeovil Town adopted their famous green shirts with white sleeves in 1949. Huddersfield Town's new charity strip has been added.

Other updates: Blackpool (1956-57 added), Swindon Town (1913-14 added), QPR (collars on 1905-15 jerseys now correct), Fulham (1913-14 cadet stripes added to socks), Reading (1897-98 kit now confirmed as adopted in 1894), WBA (1913-14 added), Brentford (1905-06 added), Aston Villa (1905-06 added). The Blackburn Rovers kit listed as "circa1915" has been confirmed for 1913-14.

16 January: Continuing our series on former Football League clubs, this photograph is of Barrow taken in 1934-35 and taken from the informative barrowfc.com website. The point of interest is the V neck shirts worn by the team: this style became almost universal between 1955 and 1962 but was very rare indeed before that. In fact, the only other team we have found wearing V necks in the Thirties is Southport. Barrow were founder members of Third Division (North) in 1921 and lost their place in 1972. They currently play in the Blue Square Premier, just one tier away from recovering their place in the Football league.

14 January: Featured in today's picture is the Ashington team from 1914 when they won the Northern Football Alliance. The Colliers became founder members of Division Three (North) of the Football League in 1921 but failed re-election eight years later, victims of the miners' strike that caused a collapse in attendances. The club still plays in the Northern League and although the town's last deep pit closed in 1988, it retains strong links to the mining industry. Indeed, the current board is led by Ian Lavery, President of the National Union of Mineworkers.

Having looked again at my notes for Dumbarton, I've tweaked the first few entries. Tony Sealey has provided information that allows us to confirm the dates of Spurs' kits between 1919 and 1926 and add a missing 1970-71 change kit. Thanks to Barry McKenna, the background to Kilmarnock's third strip is now revealed in the current SPL section. Portsmouth (1959-61 added), Cheltenham United (makers' logos added to 1997-98, 1999-2000 graphics).

9 January: I know that many visitors enjoy the old photographs that we post here from time to time and we have built up quite a nice collection. Here, for example, is the Glossop team from 1906. They joined the Football League in 1898, were promoted to the First Division at the first attempt, only to drop back into the second after one season. In 1915 they were not re-elected and were disbanded shortly afterwards. The club was reformed after the Great War and now plays under it's original name of Glossop North End.

If you have any vintage team photographs from the Victorian or Edwardian era that you would like to share with us, please get in touch.

Chelsea (1992-93 added), Leeds United (1994-95 away kit now in the correct shade of blue).

7 January: Welcome to our first posting of 2010 and a very happy New Year to everyone. In view of the icy conditions currently affecting the UK, I thought this image of a match between Manchester United and Arsenal from January 1926 might be a good way to kick off, as it were (do you see what I did there?).

Updates: Chesterfield (1945-46 collar amended, 1964-65, 1975-76 added), Everton (1971-72 change kit added), Celtic (1983-84 away kit corrected), Dumbarton (1988-89 restored), Cambridge United (new sponsor's logo added to 2009-10 graphic), the jerseys worn by Old Etonians have been changed to a more accurate shade of Eton Blue in the FA Cup Finalists and Eminent Victorians sections. Southampton (collar on the 1976 FA Cup Final kit amended).

Previous Updates: 2009 2008 2007 2006