Jump to content
IGNORED

The history of our club badge


phantom

Recommended Posts

  • Admin

I found an interesting site with the history of our club badge on, may be of interest to some??

 

After four solid campaigns, City were promoted in 1906 having won the Second Division championship. The following year they finished in second place three points behind champions Newcastle. In 1909, there was another near-miss when City reached the FA Cup Final only to lose to Manchester United 0-1. (The crest was worn in this match on the blue shirts worn for the occasion.) Two years later, City were relegated on the last day of the season: they would not return to the top flight for 66 years.

bristol city crest 1901

 

 

 

 

 

 

A crest was worn during the 1949-50 season that featured a robin standing on a football. bristol city fc crest 1949

 

 

 

 

 

This was replaced during the Fifties when the coat of arms crest was worn once again embroidered onto a white patch.

 

bristol city crest 1951

 

 

 

 

 

 

The city crest appeared once again in the 1969-70 season, now embroidered directly onto the shirts, and was used until 1976. Pre-season photos for 1971-72 show the all-red shirts and socks worn with white shorts but this strip was never worn: the photographs were taken before the new kit with white trimmings and shorts was delivered.

bristol city crest 1969

 

 

 

 

 

In 1976, City finished in runners-up position and were promoted to the First Division. To mark the occasion, a new badge replaced the city's coat of arms on players' shirts, featuring a robin (the club's nickname) and the Clifton suspension bridge, Bristol's most famous landmark.

bristol city crest 1976

 

 

 

 

 

 

Predictably they struggled to survive at this level, narrowly avoiding relegation twice before finishing a respectable 13th in 1979. The following year, however, City were relegated and in successive seasons plunged all the way down to Division Four and bankruptcy. A new company was formed (Bristol City 1982 Ltd) and closure was narrowly avoided. The club was so strapped for cash that for the opening weeks of the 1983-84 season, an old set of shirts with the (now obsolete) Umbro diamond trim down the sleeves were pressed into service before a new set were delivered, made by Bukta. The crest was missing from the new set; instead "B.C.82" in felt characters was ironed onto the chest.bristol city crest 1983

 

 

 

In 1984, The Robins began the long climb back up the league, gaining promotion in fourth position. In 1986, the robin crest was reinstated but without the background shield.

bristol city crest 1986

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the beginning of the 1994-95 season, a simplified version of the Bristol coat of arms once again became City's official crest, appearing with and without a white shield background. The team became stuck in the third tier andstruggled to avoid relegation in 2005-06. The following season, however, they were promoted to the Championship (second tier) as runners-up in League Two.

bristol city crest 1996

 

 

 

 

 

 

In April 2013 City were relegated to League One and it is probably no coincidence that a group of fans started a campaign to restore the robin crest. By November 2014 their petition had attracted 1,000 signatures but when the club updated their crest in 2015, it was only to simplify the design.

bristol city crest 2015

Link to comment
Share on other sites

History is a funny old thing.

a lot of fans clamour for the return of the Robin, but how many were aware of our prior nicknames the Garabaldians or the Citizens?  I imagine more know that we were known as the Bristol Babes.

Or that the nickname the Robins originated from the song "when the red robin goes bobbin along".  Imagine the outcry if the club tried to adopt the nickname Ruby back when the Kaiser Chiefs song topped the charts. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, JM91 said:

History is a funny old thing.

a lot of fans clamour for the return of the Robin, but how many were aware of our prior nicknames the Garabaldians or the Citizens?  I imagine more know that we were known as the Bristol Babes.

Or that the nickname the Robins originated from the song "when the red robin goes bobbin along".  Imagine the outcry if the club tried to adopt the nickname Ruby back when the Kaiser Chiefs song topped the charts. 

 

 

Cor... that Ruby song was everywhere back then!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"A crest was worn during the 1949-50 season that featured a robin standing on a football". 

Whoever designed that badge made a fortune. Norwich's badge looked sooo similar, except the bird was a canary not a robin. A third club also had a variation on this theme.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read an article recently. It said when we changed our name and kit colors in 1897 the local sports journalist used to call us the robins but it didn't catch on with the fans until a few years later. This was well before the current crest badge was ever born.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Tinmans Love Child said:

 

36 minutes ago, Tinmans Love Child said:

I think the 1949 version of the badge looks the best, a revamp of this version would look great I think, much better than the 70's and 80's version with the bridge that with all due respect looks like my nephew drew it at junior school

image.jpeg

1949 is very similar to Tottenham Hotspur.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, JM91 said:

History is a funny old thing.

a lot of fans clamour for the return of the Robin, but how many were aware of our prior nicknames the Garabaldians or the Citizens?  I imagine more know that we were known as the Bristol Babes.

Or that the nickname the Robins originated from the song "when the red robin goes bobbin along".  Imagine the outcry if the club tried to adopt the nickname Ruby back when the Kaiser Chiefs song topped the charts. 

 

 

Indeed. Never got the fascination with the robin, the current crest is much closer to the

 

9 hours ago, Threshing Red said:

I read an article recently. It said when we changed our name and kit colors in 1897 the local sports journalist used to call us the robins but it didn't catch on with the fans until a few years later. This was well before the current crest badge was ever born.

The current crest badge is almost identical to that 1901, based on the graphic above.

If the robin didn't make an appearance until 1949 then I don't understand how we can argue for the robin back on grounds of 'tradition'. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, BRISTOL86 said:

Indeed. Never got the fascination with the robin, the current crest is much closer to the

 

The current crest badge is almost identical to that 1901, based on the graphic above.

If the robin didn't make an appearance until 1949 then I don't understand how we can argue for the robin back on grounds of 'tradition'. 

yea I never get the tradition arguement, the crest was here 40 years before the robin, so we currently have our traditional badge

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

yea I never get the tradition arguement, the crest was here 40 years before the robin, so we currently have our traditional badge

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the robin, but to call it our 'traditional' crest is just wrong. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Tinmans Love Child said:

I think the 1949 version of the badge looks the best, a revamp of this version would look great I think, much better than the 70's and 80's version with the bridge that with all due respect looks like my nephew drew it at junior school

image.jpeg

The 49 badge is OK, but almost identical to the current Norwich one (except colour).

The 1976 one looks like a simpleton designed it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, BRISTOL86 said:

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the robin, but to call it our 'traditional' crest is just wrong. 

oh same here, I perfer the crest but I have nothing against the robin and frankley would be just as happy with it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Trueredsupporte said:

the club has been nicknamed the Robins for sixty years, is it? The tradition argument for the Robin is strong.

the crest was in existence and used 115 years ago, tradition for the crest is stronger :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, Trueredsupporte said:

Not what I said. nothing against the crestsbut Bcfc is nicknamed the Robins. nothing to argue about. that is a tradition. maybe that should change?

the discussion was about using a robin as the clubs badge because it was traditional but its been point out that it is also tradition that the crest is used,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Trueredsupporte said:

the robin is part of the tradition of bcfc. its nicknames. its crests. its badges. its fans. its pubs and cafes. silly to say that tradition isn't strong.

I haven't said it isn't strong

i said the traditional badge being the crest is STONGER

where have I even suggested the robin wasn't tradition?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a supporter that is older than most here my twopeneth on the kit/badge is this.

I always thought the all red kit was a bit iffy, white shorts are much better aesthetically with a red top.

On the badge, I have always preferred the club crest. However there is no reason not to have the robin on the shorts or socks and maybe even the 70's robin and bridge crest. 

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...