‘A change from the gold and black: The story of Wolves’ away kit’ by club historian, Pete Crump
Although gold and black is synonymous with Wolves, throughout the years the club has donned a variety of iconic change strips.
As we continue to celebrate our 150th anniversary, we’re taking a look at how the Wolves away kit has changed over the years.
Sunderland away
On 15th September 1890, Wolves travelled to Roker Park for the third league game of the season. This was the first time Wolves had ever played Sunderland in a competitive fixture.
According to what we know, both teams appeared in exactly the same strip due to Wolves wearing red and white stripes at the time. The referee was not happy and ordered the Wolves team back to the dressing room and to dress in their white travel/dress shirts.
We say this was potentially the game, however, we had played Sunderland previously in a friendly, and it also poses the question as to why this clash was not spotted with Stoke, another founder member of the football league, like ourselves.
Our shorts and socks, however, were different to that of Stoke, and with less colours available in those days, a different colour of shorts and socks would probably have sufficed.
This Sunderland game, we believe, caused a change to the football league regulations and this was also the first time a football league handbook was produced with such details. Originally, and according to histroicalkits.com, Wolves’ new home colours were to be blue and orange, as was reported in The Burnley Express. However, by the 1891/92 season, old gold and black quartered shirts and black shorts were registered, and this was reported in the Preston Herald.
Another rule put in place was a team also had to have a set of white change shirts. This was introduced in 1892, although it wasn’t always the away team that changed, often it was the home side.
Sometimes it was also the older team in the football league that got to play in their home colours and the younger team that changed, although we had already accidentally adopted white as our change shirt after the Sunderland game.
White away
Wolves wore white as the change shirt for many years. Initially the shirt had black shorts and socks in the early years, but by the 1920s, the shorts had gone to white with black socks. From 1937 to 1947 it was white shirts, white socks and hooped black and white socks.
In the mid-1950s, there was also a lovely all white strip with gold and black trim. This was seen from 1956 to 1962 and this shirt was often given a run out in the famous ‘Colours vs Whites’ game.
This was a pre-season game held at Molineux and it was called this for one reason – what was deemed the first team would wear the gold and black, the shirt with the colour, and the reserves or Central League side would wear the white away. This game was therefore Wolves versus Wolves.
Famously on Saturday 8th August 1959, Billy Wright was programmed to play for the Whites and he is listed in the matchday programme in the reserve side, but in fact, that day he played for the Colours. This was Wright’s last ever appearance in a Wolves shirt as he retired shortly after.
During the 1950s, pictorial evidence in a game against Blackpool also shows us wearing the white shirt with the home shorts. Wolves have worn the home shorts and sometimes socks at Blackpool, so as not to clash with their white shorts. The away shirt in those days was merely a change shirt and only worn as and when required. Wolves would therefore wear gold and black at every opportunity, home and away.
The away shirt of the 1960s was similar to that of the 1950s. This was a round neck and all white, which once again had lovely gold and black trim. The shirts in the 1970s were plain, however we did see the badge appear. Interestingly, footage shows Wolves wearing their away shirt at home on Saturday 2nd January 1971.
Wolves played Norwich City at Molineux in the FA Cup third round and Norwich are one of the sides where we have always clashed with. Due to a rule in the FA Cup at the time, we believe both teams changed if there was a clash in the competition, so Wolves therefore faced Norwich at home wearing the white away shirt, black shorts (home shorts) and white socks. Norwich played in red.
The footage does show, however, that the club crest, namely the one leaping wolf and the W did not appear on the away shirt concurrently with the home. We believe it came onto the away shirt at a later date. It was on the away shirt by the mid-1970s, around 1973.
There are pictures of Andy Gray depicted in Steve Plant’s excellent ‘They Wore the Shirt’ book showing the Scottish striker wearing an early to mid-1970s away shirt. He is pictured alongside Graham Hawkins in circa 1982 at a training session at Castlecroft.
It also shows some of the other players also training in old white away shirts from the 1970s. The same picture shows Mick Matthews donning a white 1970s away shirt from later in the decade and it appears that Hugh Atkinson is also in the same shirt and other players are also wearing 1974 League Cup jackets too, the best part of a decade after the final. We know that old kit was recycled at Wolves for training gear right up until at least the late 1980s.
The away shirts from the 1970s are iconic and as with several of the home kits, there has been a popular remake in recent seasons. In the 1970s, the white away was worn with white shorts, the black shorts, and sometimes the home socks too.
Again, going back to Blackpool, Wolves can be seen wearing the white away, with the home shorts and white socks on Saturday 30th October 1976. Some may remember this game was marred by crowd trouble with the players being taken off the pitch for around eight minutes in the second half.
In October 1979, the new Wolves head came onto the shirt and with it, a popular away shirt. The Wolves away shirt from 1979 to 1982 again is an icon from the Umbro years, as it is plain, crisp and stylish in equal measure. Both home and away from 1979 to 1982 are identical apart from the colour. Interestingly, the shorts in this era do not display the new Wolves head and this would not appear on the shorts until 1982.
We’ll delve more into the 1980s, and future generations of the Wolves away kit, over the coming weeks.
Wolves historian Pete Crump’s weekly articles reflecting on a range of topics from the club’s proud past will be available throughout the 150th anniversary season on wolves.co.uk.
