The Mail Bag
Everton 1886
Comments (8)
The other day I received, in the post, my final Christmas present from a wonderful girlfriend: An Everton replica shirt,as worn by the club in the year 1886. It's a beautiful rugby style white top, with old-fashioned buttons on the collar and cuffs.
But intriguingly,the heraldic design of the badge has baffled me ,as it features a large red rose (presumably to indicate Lancashire)but also a conspicuous Liver Bird!!!
As a 31-year-old season ticket holder, I pretty much know my history as much as the next man, but I was not aware of our club sporting the Liver Bird on our shirts at any time.
My bird happens to be a red, so either one of three things is happening here: An honest mistake; A malicious and insidious prank; Or it happens to be true!! The shirt can be viewed by anyone at the TOFFS website.
My question is simple:Can anyone please shed any light on this for a confused,and paranoid blue?! Was the Liver Bird ours?
Kevin Hudson, Posted 14/01/2008 at 15:35:03
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1 Posted 14/01/2008 at 16:48:38
2 Posted 14/01/2008 at 16:47:23
. The first team photograph taken in 1881, a short time after St Domingo?s changed their name to Everton.
The sepia-toned photograph of the first Everton team was taken at a local Merseyside studio in 1881. The photograph features Douglas, Evans, Higgins, Marriott, McGill, Richards, Williams and seven other players whose identities remain unknown. Of these only Higgins progressed to play for Everton during the inaugural Football League season seven years later.
During 1881 the Everton ledgers inform us that the team played in shirts made up of pink and white halves and the distinction between each half is visible in the photograph. It is also noticeable that the shirts do not display a badge or emblem of any kind. This is because, unlike most of its peers, the Club did not include a badge on the shirts for decades and players often preferred to wear their county or international badges!
An EFC badge was adopted for a couple of seasons in the early 1920s, but no further mention is made in the Club?s ledgers or displayed on Club letterhead for another half-century.
Today?s attractive crest portrays the Everton Bridewell, a historical landmark built in 1787, but the badge itself is of far more recent vintage. It was designed by secretary Theo Kelly to adorn a club tie and proved so popular that it was adopted as the official crest on March 15 1938.
David France bid for the photograph in question at Bonhams Auction of Sporting Memorabilia in Chester. The image measures 320mm x 165mm and at the time of the auction was advertised as the only known copy of the photograph to have survived. Some years later, however, another copy surfaced and both pay tribute to an age of simplicity where sponsors and shirt colour and design were not of importance.
As you can see the only reference to an older club badge is from the 1920?s but I too do recall reading somewhere that we did use the Liver bird as an emblem during our formative years
confusing ?
3 Posted 14/01/2008 at 17:04:04
4 Posted 14/01/2008 at 17:55:16
5 Posted 14/01/2008 at 18:33:22
6 Posted 14/01/2008 at 20:09:37
If memory serves me correct, it is actually a shirt worn by the Lancashire X1.
Hence the red rose.
NSNO web site had a link to a guy that was researching the history of team shirts and i mailed him with this after seeing it on Toffs.
He put me straight on its origions.
All said and done. A nice shirt though with a link to the blues.
7 Posted 15/01/2008 at 12:10:39
Wiki can explain all...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everton_fc#Crest
8 Posted 15/01/2008 at 15:12:39
Or am I taking this way too seriously ?? !!
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