Jump to content

Club colours


Recommended Posts


Apologies for adding something a little mundane but some changes in club colours are simply associated with technology. Up until the 1960's only cotton or wool were readily available for sporting jumpers. In addition the fast colours (i.e. those that wouldn't run or fade too quickly) were also relatively limited and, in the late 19th century early 20th century this was even more so. The simplist colours available would have been bleached white, dark blue and red, with a dull yellow being a bit extravagant. Hoops were much simpler to knit than anything which might explain their popularity, whilst a V would have had to be stitched on.

Since the 60's synthetic fibres became much more the norm and many more dyestuffs were developed that allowed brighter and more variable colours. The advent of advanced printing technologies has allowed designers to let their imaginations flow, sometimes into places that we really wish they hadn't.

In other words the choice of colours would often have been determined by what was available and what was affordable, limitations that are much reduced nowadays.

Sport, amongst other things, is a dream-world offering escape from harsh reality and the disturbing prospect of change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Mr Plow said:

Leeds United have pretty close historical ties with Huddersfield Town. They were at one point going to merge and become Leeds Trinity FC. 
 

Now I’m curious as to how Town and Giants play in such different colours

Why would they play in the same colours?

A lot of clubs changed their shirt colours  in the early years.  The colours did not necessarily  reflect the local boroughs' coats of arms.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Hopping Mad said:

In his book 50 Years of Bloody Sundays, Doncaster RLFC 1951-2001, Peter Hilton suggests Doncaster's choice of blue and amber was a reflection of "much helpful assistance" from Leeds in setting up the new club.

Apparently, York chose amber (or yellow) and black because their first captain had played previously for Wasps.

I’m sure I was told once that the first kit The Dons ever had was a hand me down kit from Leeds. When they did eventually have their own kit made they stuck with the same colours.

No idea if that’s true but it makes sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Willforminis said:

Showing my age now I can remember Northern playing in Dewsbury shirts .This would be around 1968(I was seven).Also a previous poster mentioned plain shirts , well Northern played in plain red shirts for away(and sometimes home) games for years.

Certainly remember Northern’s red shirts.

Been one or two plain shirts. When I started watching rugby league, in the 1970s, Cas had plain amber shirts. Is that their traditional style? Bramley played in plain amber shirts (no black chevron) at various times. Ditto York (no black hoops).

Widnes have often favoured all red as an alternative strip. For a couple of seasons in the 1980s, Blackpool (pale grey) and Whitehaven (chocolate) had plain ‘away’ shirts.

Always liked Blackpool’s distinctive tangerine (inspired by Blackpool FC, presumably), black and white shirts. Design never seemed to change, either, which was nice.

On the subject of Bramley, I remember in the 1980s they created ‘home’ and ‘away’ strips from the same colours: amber with black chevron; black with amber chevron. Cool.

A lot of rugby union club colour choices were taken from schools the founding ‘old boys’ had attended. 

Anybody know anything about the colours worn by defunct Northern Union clubs such as Heckmondwike, Liversedge, Runcorn and Stockport? Stockport RU - no connection with the RL club - play in red, blue and white.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Hopping Mad said:

Anybody know anything about the colours worn by defunct Northern Union clubs such as Heckmondwike, Liversedge, Runcorn and Stockport? Stockport RU - no connection with the RL club - play in red, blue and white.

Stockport RUFC play in red, white and green.

Not that this helps move the thread on - I ackowledge that!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 29/03/2020 at 15:48, Clogiron said:

I have a soft spot for RU too, just to the side of the water butt at the bottom of the back garden, think it used to be a pond once?

?

My soft spot is for the shirt to be more precise.

We are singing on the same song sheet though. I have a soft spot for our shed at the bottom of our garden. It's full of junk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Hopping Mad said:

You're quite right, Linzi. Apologies. Been a couple of decades since I was at Stockport RU!

About the same time as me then!

My team once turned up at Stockport without its kit and had to borrow some shirts off them.  A local sports shop had an unexpected boom in shorts and socks sales that day.

You'd think that would create an awkward colour clash, but we too usually wore red, white and green anyway!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 29/03/2020 at 13:49, Blind side johnny said:

What colours did Leeds Parish Church, the biggest club in the city at the time, used to play in?

They wore a thick red top, with a thinner, slightly shorter white one over the top. 
image.jpeg.9f61f47c9682ed0bb613864b5e15bd15.jpegHere’s the Masters team alongside some of the juniors. 
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Northern Eel said:

They wore a thick red top, with a thinner, slightly shorter white one over the top. 
image.jpeg.9f61f47c9682ed0bb613864b5e15bd15.jpegHere’s the Masters team alongside some of the juniors. 
 

Good to see an early example of rugby league's commitment to inclusivity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Northern Eel said:

They wore a thick red top, with a thinner, slightly shorter white one over the top. 
image.jpeg.9f61f47c9682ed0bb613864b5e15bd15.jpegHere’s the Masters team alongside some of the juniors. 
 

Yes but 90% of their support was Russian Jews from the nearby Leylands and Irish Catholics from the Nearby Bank area . Could have been a dispute about the wearing of of red and white prayer shawls and Yarmulkes 

 Soon we will be dancing the fandango
FROM 2004,TO DO WHAT THIS CLUB HAS DONE,IF THATS NOT GREATNESSTHEN i DONT KNOW WHAT IS.

JAMIE PEACOCK

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Although in black and white, this website provides kit images of late 1800s and early 1900s Leeds teams , Hunslet teams alongside even Australian and All Blacks/Kiwi teams here on tour.

Notable are Leeds teams playing in all white shirts or what seems to be dark blue (difficult to tell but the greyscale would suggest blue). Even the Leeds team recorded after the demise of the Parish Church team are seen in white in 08/09, 14/15 etc.

http://www.albertgoldthorpe.info/gallery_team_photos.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Hopping Mad said:

Good to see an early example of rugby league's commitment to inclusivity.

They were reknowned for the "boisterous" nature of their suporters, one of the reasons for their demise.

Sport, amongst other things, is a dream-world offering escape from harsh reality and the disturbing prospect of change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Leeds Parish Church played in blue and black hoops, and occasionally white.

Stockport NU were known as The Clarets.

Pontefract (Yorkshire Challenge Cup winners) played in crimson in their RFU days.

The original Castleford club (no relation to the current team) wore red and blue (I think).

The original Leeds RFC* (the first ever rugby club in Yorkshire, providing the catalyst for the growth of the code in the county) played in all white, which ties in quite nicely with LUFC's choice of colours. 

 

*A strictly amateur club which folded in the 1880s(?) as they couldn't find any local clubs to play that weren't suspected of being professional in some form.

Minä rakastan rugbyliigaa!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I've mentioned this in an earlier thread on this, but Huddersfield played in navy blue shirts in their early days. The switch to claret and gold wasn't popular, according to local press reports.

Minä rakastan rugbyliigaa!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 29/03/2020 at 13:03, Mr Plow said:

The colours of the city of Leeds are blue and amber/yellow/gold (whatever you want to call it) Leeds United originally (and still do) played in blue and gold until they switched to white.

Other Leeds clubs have followed suite with Leeds Tykes wearing blue and amber (until they became Carnegie) and even the hockey team Leeds Chiefs have adopted blue and yellow.

I was just interested in why Leeds as a city and it’s sports teams stick to a colour scheme whereas other places and clubs don’t.

Bradford city for example adopted Manninghams colours whereas the Bulls and Park Avenue wear similar colours, white, red, yellow and black, (excluding PA Celtic inspired green and white) 

Manninghams colours were believed to have been taken from the colours of the Prince of Wales West Yorkshire regiment. The barracks were on the road with the ground and they used them as changing rooms in the early days,  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.