Kit History
Wimbledon Old Centrals
1889
1889-1890n
1890-1892n
1892-1893x
1893-1896n
1896-1900n
1900-1905n p
Wimbledon
1905-1910
Club wound up
1905-1907n
1907-1910n
Wimbledon Borough
1911-12
Club wound up
1911-1912n
Wimbledon
1912
1912-1919n
1919-1920n
1920-1921n
1921-1923n
1923-1931n r
1935-1936n
1946-1947n
1947-1948r
1948-1949n
1951-1956n t
1956-1957t
1957-1960f n
1960-1962k n p
Am Cup Final 63
1964-1966p q
1966-1967q
1967-1970p q t
1970-Aug 72h p q
Sept 72-April 74p q
Sept 73-May 1974p
Aug-Dec 1974p
Nov-Dec 1974p
Jan-Feb 1975p
Feb-April 1975p w
Aug-Sept 1975p u
Sept '75-Nov '76p
Dec '76-1977p u
1977-1978b h k l
1978-1980k l
Sept-Oct 1980l
Nov 80-1981p
1981-1982c k
1982-1983p
1983-1984k o v
1984-1985b g v
1985-1986p
1986-1987m
1987-1988d b i
1989-1990d
1990-1991 1i r
1990-1991 2i r
1991-1993d i
1993-1994d i
1994-1995b d
1995-1996d
1996-1997d
1997-1999d i
1999-2000i
2000-2001b i
2001-2002b
2002-2004b
Background
The extraordinary rise and fall of Wimbledon has few parallels in the history of football. It also turns out to be rather more complicated than previously assumed.
Formed in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Centrals, the original Dons played on Wimbledon Common in navy jerseys to which their initials were added in 1890.
They dropped "Old Centrals" from their name in 1905 and in 1908 the club moved to a ground on Burlington Road where the pitch was so waterlogged that half their fixtures had to be postponed or moved. Appeals to the council for help relocating fell on deaf ears and in September 1910 the club suspended its activities.
Bert Dale has found photographic evidence that a monogram crest was worn on the team's striped shirts.
A new club, based on Coppermill Lane quickly emerged with the backing of the original Wimbledon chairman and several former players. The new team was made up of council workers and adopted the title Wimbledon Borough FC in July 1911. The only evidence we have of their colours is a fragment of a photograph that suggests their shirts were black and white. The club adopted the borough coat of arms as its official crest but it is not known if these were ever worn on their shirts. A lack of support from the council led to Borough also being disbanded after one season. Immediately afterwards Wimbledon FC were formed (it is unclear if there was a connection with the defunct club). The new team played in "black and white" at Plough Lane, their home for the next 75 years.
After a hiatus during the First World War, the club joined the hastily formed United Senior League in January 1919 before moving to the Athenian League for the 1919-20 season.
In 1920 the club adopted blue tops (known, as of September 2016, to be trimmed with red) and we have a team photograph taken in training showing a large "W" on the shirts. This seems to have attracted the disapproval of the FA and was later dropped. At the end of the season the committee took a gamble by applying to join the Isthmian League who were soon to vote on a proposal to expand. The news leaked out but happily for Wimbledon, the expansion went through: had the vote failed they would likely have been
without a competition the following season.
The crest adopted in 1923 was based on the coat of arms of the Borough of Wimbledon, featuring a double headed eagle. This is a reference to a legend that Julius Caesar once made camp on Wimbledon Common. This crest was dropped sometime in the late-1950s.
Wimbledon became one of the leading amateur clubsin the country, winning the Isthmian League eight times. After winningthe prestigious FA Amateur Cup in 1963, the club turned semi-professionaland joined the Southern League.
The double headed eagle briefly reappeared between 1970 and 1974.
During the 1973-74 season the team wore a yellow and blue strip in several games although their all-blue outfit seems to have been firrst choice. In 1974-75 the team enjoyed an epic run in the FA Cup wearing yellow and blue. When they were drawn against Burnley (then in the First Division) Ron Hales, the owner of a local sports shop, donated a set of Bukta strips in yellow with the latest blue trim. The Dons won the game and adopted the new outfit as their lucky strip but it was deemed too pale to be worn in the next round against Leeds United (due to be televised in black and white) so Hales donated a second set in reverse colours. After holding Leeds to a replay, this blue strip was worn for the rest of the season.
The yellow shirts were reinstated for 1975-76 (with yellow shorts at first then blue ones). A white outfit was worn against Leatherhead in an FA Cup Second Round match in December 1976 and by February 1977, this was being worn regularly in the Southern League, including in a win against Telford that clinched the Dons' third successive Southern League title.
At the Football League AGM in June 1977, with three successive Southern League titles under their belt the Dons were elected to the Football League at the expense of Workington. For their inaugural season the team wore a new all-white strip by Adidas and a new version of their traditional crest was introduced.
After a modestfirst season, the club were promoted and relegated four times in succession.In 1983 they began a remarkable run that took them all the way to theFirst Division in 1986. The upstart club, dubbed the "Crazy Gang,"defied critics by finishing in sixth position in
1987 and then, againstall the odds, beat Liverpool to win the FA Cup in 1988. Their tacticsof playing long balls to their fast strikers combined with the uncompromisinglyphysical defence of Vinnie Jones and John "Fash the Bash" Fashanuwon few friends but confounded many more purist sides.
Within days of their FA Cup triumph, the club announcedplans to leave their cramped Plough Lane ground to move into a new stadiumin their native borough of Merton. These plans came to nothing: with PloughLane unsuitable for redevelopment, the club sold it off and moved intoSelhurst Park with Crystal Palace in 1991. Remarkably, despite limitedresources and modest attendances, the Dons continued to thrive, finishingin the top nine between 1994 and 1997, when they also reached the semi-finalsof both the League and FA Cups. A move to Dublin was floated but was droppedwhen the FA and UEFA pointed out that the club could not continue to playin the Premier League if they were based in the Republic of Ireland. Thismarked the beginning of the breakdown of the relationship between theclub and its local fan base.
In 1999, the club's colourful owner Sam Hammamsold Wimbledon to a Norwegian consortium who installed Egil Olsen as manager.The new owners were looking for a return on their investment and werenot prepared to pump money in merely for prestige. On the last day ofthe 1999-2000 season, Wimbledon finally succumbed to relegation. Despitefears that the club would go into free-fall, they narrowly missed outon a play-off place in the next two seasons.
Meanwhile, however, the search for a permanenthome resulted in a decision to move the club to Milton Keynes. The majorityof Dons fans, alienated by the attitude of the club's owners, formed theirown club,AFC Wimbledon in 2002. While the reviled "Franchise FC"club played out its final games at Selhurst Park in front of fewer than3,000 spectators, the fans' club was regularly attracting larger gatesdespite playing at
the base of the pyramid.
In August 2002 the Royal College of Arms wrote to the club to raise objections to their use of the double-headed eagle crest. In the view of the college, the device had been granted to the London Borough of Merton and its use by the football club was unlawful. A new club crest was commissioned and in April 2003 this received the endorsement of the remaining season ticket holders. The club's website announced the new design "as part of a new identity (that) takes the Club's identity forward as it embarks on a new and exciting future in Milton Keynes." The following season, however, the 2002-03 strips were retained complete with the old crest, which also re-appeared on the official website.
In September 2003, Wimbledon moved into the NationalHockey Stadium in Milton Keynes, despite having gone into administration,owing over £20m. Six months later a local consortium led by PeterWinkleman bought the club and saved it from liquidation. Stranded at thebottom of Nationwide Division One, the decision did not save the Donsfrom relegation. The following year, Winkleman announced that the clubwas to be renamedMilton Keynes Dons and adopt a new badge and colours.All ties with the old club were effectively severed.
WhileMilton Keynes Dons struggled,AFC Wimbledon continued to thrive in south-west London and in 2005 fans mounted a legal claim to become the true inheritors of Wimbledon FC'shistory. This action was settled in August 2006, when it was agreed thatthe "physical patrimony" (lawyer-speak for ephemerasuch as photographs, programmes etc) would be passed to the London Boroughof Merton while MK Dons gave up all claims to the honours won by Wimbledon FC.
Sources
- (a) Club Colours (Bob Bickerton)
- (b)empics
- (c)ClassicKits
- (d)SportingHeroes
- (e)MKDons Official Website
- (f)FootballFocus
- (g) Bjørn-Terje Nilssen
- (h)Pete'sPicture Palace
- (i) David King
- (j)Barry Weekley
- (k) Ralph Pomeroy
- (l) Alick Milne
- (m) Ed Thomson
- (n) History of Wimbledon FC - brilliant historical site: additional input from Bert@AFCWimbledon and Ray Armfield
- (o) Riccardo Attanasiojumpers4goalposts
- (p) Tony Sealey
- (q) Steven Leadon
- (r) Keith Ellis (HFK Research Associate)
- (s)Margate FC History submitted by Richard Ralph
- (t) Steve Leadon
- (u) Simon Knifton
- (v) Anthony Borrett
- (w) Steve Porter
- (x) The Wimbledon Gazette (August 1993) submitted by Tony Sealey
2003 crest background researched by Joshua Malpass.