Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.15

Manchester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers (1974):

In the world of international fashion, bright citrus-coloured pants have rarely, if ever, been considered as acceptable. The same can be said of sky blue two-piece outfits with red trimmings.

Luckily the world of football doesn't concern itself with international fashion, and this undoubtedly allowed the 1974 League Cup Final to be one of the most colourful occasions ever seen at Wembley. And that was before the match got started.

As the two teams walked out onto the pitch for the big match, 97,000 fans could have been excused for whipping out their sunglasses and shielding their eyes from the glare.

On the one hand, Wolverhampton Wanderers, boldly striding forth in black tracksuit tops and 'old gold' pants; on the other, Manchester City, their opponents, a vision in summer blue with the customary stripy Umbro trim in red. If Admiral epitomised the excesses of late-1970’s football kit design, Umbro preceded it with their Wembley show costumes.

Indeed this was an occasion when Umbro could look from afar with great pride. Both teams were wearing their apparel, both sets of tracksuit tops adorned by the Umbro logo of the time on the right breast. As for the all too stark effect of Wolves' jet black zip-up jackets and glowing yellow-orange bottoms, it was certainly daring, to say the least.

But let's not forget the small details on the top: the three leaping wolves of the club badge on the left breast, the substantial collar that Eric Cantona could have made an entire repertoire out of, and the word 'Wolves' emblazoned across the back... it was enough to bring a tear to the eye of Wulfrunians everywhere.

Less garish but just as bright were the City boys, Denis Law, Mike Summerbee and Rodney Marsh amongst them. Their tracksuit bore a closer resemblance to their playing kit, yet it too allowed for a considerable degree of flare and style.

Looking virtually the same as the garb worn by the England national team at the time (save for a different shade of blue) Ron Saunders' men looked quietly confident in their smart outfits. The two-tone red waist bands, leg and shoulder stripes and slim collar were a symbol of Umbro's 'tailored' approach to football kit manufacture, and with this in mind we can't imagine too many City fans complaining about the use of United's colours to round off the overall look of this tracksuit.

As far as we can make out, there was no name on the back of the tops, so apart from the aforementioned details and the club badge on the front, that was it - but what a fine look it was. If only it had spurred Manchester City onto an equally fine result on the day.

In the end, it was the dark destroyers in black tracksuit tops that won the 1974 League Cup Final. A 2-1 triumph for Bill McGarry's team was, amongst other things, a victory for loud and audacious colour schemes over toned-down smartness, but those clever designers at Umbro wouldn't have minded either way. For them, this was surely an occasion when they couldn't lose - no matter what the outcome.

Want more tracksuit-related memories? Try these on for size...

• No.14: Ipswich Town and Arsenal (1978)
• No.13: Norway (1986)
• No.12: Wales (1976)
• No.11: Borussia Mönchengladbach (circa 1976)
• No.10: England (1986)
• No.9: Argentina (1978)
• No.8: Derby County (1978)
• No.7: Coventry City (1978)
• No.6: Brighton & Hove Albion (1983)
• No.5: Arsenal (1989)
• No.4: John Bond special
• No.3: Leeds United (1974)
• No.2: Liverpool (1977)
• No.1: Slovan Bratislava (1976)

Badge Focus: Wolverhampton Wanderers

As mentioned on our recent podcast, we've been toying with the idea of bringing back Badge Focus, a feature that originally ran briefly on the blogsite Football Fairground. Well the good news is that Badge Focus is back, and we begin with Wolverhampton Wanderers as our subject...

The story starts in the 1970/71 season when Wolves first wore a proper badge on their old gold shirts for the first time. They'd worn the Wolverhampton coat of arms during the 1947/48 season, but the Molineux club opted to leave their shirts unadorned until the start of the 1970's when a new badge featuring a wolf leaping over the club's initials appeared in black.

This was an exciting time to be a Wolves fan. After something of a decline in the 1960's, manager Bill McGarry steered his team to a fourth place finish in Division One in 1970/71. The following season they reached the UEFA Cup Final, losing out eventually to Tottenham, and in 1974 Wolves won the League Cup Final.

It was for this latter event that a new badge appeared, this time featuring three leaping wolves in vertical formation. Over the next five years, the three wolves appeared centrally on the shirt while further identification was provided to the right in the form of the letters 'WW'.

Having been a mid-table team in the First Division for some time, they were eventually relegated in 1975/76, but this started a period in which they became something of a yo-yo club. In 1976/77 they were Second Division champions, in 1978/79 they finished two places above the First Division relegation zone and in 1979/80 they finished sixth in the top flight (qualifying for the UEFA Cup again), with another League Cup win at Wembley to boot.

By the time Wolves defeated Nottingham Forest in that League Cup Final, a third badge had arrived. This time an angular Wolf's head was the motif above the club name in a Helvetica-style font. With big-money signing Andy Gray leading the way on the field, things looked bright but it was something of a false dawn as further ups and downs were witnessed by the fans. Relegation in 1981/82, promotion back to the First Division in 1982/83, relegation again in 1983/84, then two further relegations in successive seasons ultimately saw Wolverhampton Wanderers in Division Four and in a parlous state.

Before a change of fortunes materialised, Wolves introduced a new badge in 1988 featuring the wolf's head this time presented in a two-tone shield with ribbons above and below displaying the club's name and year of formation. A combination of old and modern styling, this seemed to be a pleasing compromise that no doubt appealed to many of the fans, but it didn't last that long.

With the arrival of Steve Bull, Wolves had a steady source of goals again and the club quickly climbed the league structure, winning the Fourth Division title in 1988 and the Third Division title in 1989. Another trophy was added to the display cabinet with a Football League Trophy win in 1988.

It was at this point that Sir Jack Hayward purchased Wolverhampton Wanderers and invested substantially towards its recovery. While that was happening, Wolves ditched the old club badge and replaced it with the Wolverhampton coat of arms which, as mentioned, had appeared for a single season in the late-1940's.

Yet even that didn't last for long. Having appeared on the team shirts for the first time in 1993, it too was replaced in 1996 at which point a somewhat crude exaggeration of the old wolf's head logo was seen as being fit for purpose.

All through the chopping and changing of the badge, Wolves remained in the second tier of English football but when the breakthrough came in the form of promotion to the Premier League in 2003, they'd already switched to the badge they wear today. The wolf's head, now with right-angled triangles for eyes and contained within an old gold hexagon, has, by the club's standards, been in place for a long time now. Whether you like it or not, it has at least proven to be more consistent in recent times than the club's own fortunes as life in the third tier beckons for next season.

So there you have it - a potted history of Wolverhampton Wanderers' graphic identity, but by way of a general discussion, which badge do you like best? Leave us a comment below or take part in our online poll...

The Football Attic Guide To... Team Photos

Ever since the day when 22 men first walked onto a field to kick about an inflated pig's bladder, the practice of taking a team photograph has been a mainstay in the football world. With the constant need to worship the sporting heroes put before us, we, the fans, have demanded the imagery that maintains and strengthens the love we have for our teams. To see a picture of the team we support is to reaffirm our pride and dedication.

Yet the act of capturing the physical and spiritual attributes of a given team is nothing if not a fine art. Merely snapping a picture of a group of men standing next to each other in the same outfit is only the beginning. There are many other things to consider if you want to create a truly epic team photo, so to illustrate that point we’ve put together a special Football Attic Guide for anyone needing to know how to do it right.

Right: Manchester United
Wrong: Notts County

1. Personnel 

To begin with, choose your subjects well. Obviously you’ll need at least 11 players, but you may wish to assemble a full squad, in which case a sense of strength and superiority can be implied through association with massed army ranks.

It’s also worth considering whether or not to include the manager, trainers, coaches and other hangers-on as too many people can make the shot look overcrowded. Let’s face it: who wants to see the club secretary?

An additional point: Make sure your team are smart, properly washed and groomed to create a positive image. Persuading your long-haired loons to take a haircut isn't compulsory, but in some cases it can make the overall picture look much tidier. Or to put it another way, if an Arsenal-era Charlie George makes his way in front of the camera, tell him to take the afternoon off.

Attic Tip: If your team wears stripes, an abundance of players in your picture can induce vomiting and nausea. Proceed only after seeking medical advice from your GP.

Right: Blackburn Rovers, Bristol City
Wrong: Southport, Sunderland.

2. Formation and composition

The traditional approach is, of course, to have two or three rows of players, each one ascending in height to create a pleasing image. This has become the de facto way to present your team picture over many decades, but with a little creativity and originality, new life can be breathed into the old format.

Take the camera angle, for instance. Instead of positioning the camera centrally in front of your subjects, put it to the left or right and arrange your players to stand in a line. The sense of perspective will draw the viewer’s eye towards a non-existent imaginary point in the distance, thereby creating depth.

Similarly, elevating the camera to look down on your team, if arranged correctly can be a welcome change from the traditional seated-and-standing approach. Here, sensible experimentation is encouraged.

Attic Tip: Under no circumstances be tempted to arrange your team like a set of ten-pin bowling skittles. It’s not clever and it’s not funny.

Right: Everton, Ipswich Town.
Wrong: Seattle Sounders, Houston Hurricane

3. Location

It was Clement Attlee’s Labour government of 1945 that passed a law stating that all football team photographs had to be taken in a footballing environment, be it “a stadium, a training pitch or, if no alternative exists, an indoor training facility.” Apparently. That’s why most team photos look the same.

And why not - it’s where your team look at its most natural, its most jovial and its most believable. It’s for that reason why - and we’re sorry to say this - experimentation must never be considered.

The moment you take the team away from the pitch, you take away its sense of meaning - its raison d'être, if you will. Shipping your players to a strange and inappropriate venue only causes confusion and anxiety for the people looking at your photo. It may seem harsh to be so strict about these things, but believe us, it’s worth it in the long run.

Attic Tip: Putting your team on an airport runway or in a verdant sub-tropical scenario is something you’ll regret for the rest of your days as a team photographer. Please don’t.

Right: Walsall
Wrong: AFC Bournemouth

4. Wardrobe

If you’re going to mark the occasion with a commemorative photograph, tell your team to make the effort and put their brand new kit on. It’ll show up lovely in the final prints, it really will. Failing that, last season’s jaded old kit will do, but looking smart is the key and there’s no excuses for scruffiness.

Having said all that, wearing a new kit for the team pic can backfire on you. If it happens to be lary, flash or in any way extravagant, it’ll be immortalised for years to come on football nostalgia blogsites where it’ll be made fun of in a cruel and relentless way. Possibly.

Due care must therefore be taken in deciding exactly which kit to wear on the big day and if anyone suggests wearing suits instead of playing kit, kindly tell them where to go. This is a place for tracksuits at best - not an off-the-peg number from Next.

Attic Tip: If your kit looks like it doesn't belong to any particular era you can think of or has been chosen as the winner of a Blue Peter ‘Design a Football Kit’ competition, it’s probably best to leave it in the changing room.

Right: Manchester City.
Wrong: Wolverhampton Wanderers

5. Success

Finally, if you've got the location right, the outfits right, the people right and the composition right, all you need do is consider the final cherry on the cake that can make or break a picture.

In a word, trophies. To give the impression that your team is successful (even if it’s not), do yourself a favour and find as many trophies as you can. They don’t even have to be related to football - just find something that you can put on the ground in front of the team to show they’re really going places.

Nothing impresses like success but though it’s great to be able to show off a European Cup or a Premier League trophy, not everyone can do so. That’s why it’s good to take a walk down to your local pub and ask them to borrow that tarnished old cup you won for winning the darts tournament six years ago or that wooden shield with the shiny engraved name plates all over it. No-one will ever know the difference and you might just attract the attention of an interested foreign investor to your club.