When did programmes go from being the pretty short form they were with plenty of adverts and start including articles about what a player has for breakfast and what three things they’d take to a desert island and what club was the first to do that?
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I'd say in the 1960s (late?), it was common by the 1970s. The insert "Football League Review" was full of colour and content, perhaps printing technology was then more widely available and cheaper. Programme photos were still black and white, at least down in the cheap divisions.
I was a paid-up member of All The Young Prudes and can remember being shocked when an Exeter player's favourite film was Confessions of a Window Cleaner or suchlike.
(I knew who Jack Jones was though).Comment
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I think I've absorbed and plagiarised that from WSC ...
https://www.wsc.co.uk/stories/14133-...o-change-or-goComment
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Not a random inside page, but a cover from my collection that is certainly of its time. Those of you with a knowledge of Irish football will be aware of the tendency for Cork based clubs to go bust, reform and go bust again. There have a been about a dozen Cork teams in the league over the years. Anyway Evergreen United were limping along onsolvently when this one went to the printers. By the time the game was played they'd folded and been replaced lock, stock and barrel by a new entity Cork Celtic.Comment
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And here's Sligo Rovers breaching the Dutch FA's copyright
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There were some clubs who tried to buck the default programme article trend. I only have one Coventry City programme from the 70-71 season but the examples which follow show that the editor was at least trying to give fans, if not Booker prize material, something less dumbed down than usual.
(pics in next post)Comment
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Sunday football is taken for granted these days but the days when football was not allowed to be played on a Sunday are within the lifetime of a few on here at least. The turning point came in 1974 when four FA Cup ties were played on Sunday 6 January. From memory, Millwall were first thanks to an earlier kick-off time but one of the others was Bradford City v Alvechurch which I decided to go to. The law at the time, I believe, said that you couldn’t charge for admission to a football game being played on a Sunday. I had it in my mind that the device used to get round this was to charge for a programme, or 'souvenir brochure' as it was described here for some reason, and you could only gain entry if you were in possession of one, but when I checked my programmes I found that you needed to purchase a ‘team sheet’. I’m pretty sure they would have been on dodgy ground if times had been as litigious as they are now, but they got away with it. Here’s the programme and team sheet.
I remember an excellent cup-tie with Bradford City running out as 4-2 winners though Alvechurch were ahead twice. As far as the attendance was concerned, it worked – there were 13,000 there, compared to Saturday gates of 3-4,000. A League game a couple of Sundays later attracted 9,000.
Most of the Bradford City players I recognise, but only Graham Allner of Alvechurch rings any bells. He played and coached at non-league level at a number of clubs in that area to the south-west of Birmingham stretching down to Cheltenham and Gloucester that doesn’t really have a name, before taking Kidderminster into the Football League. He later had a spell as manager of Cheltenham Town.
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Who is that chubby bloke supposed to be or represent?Comment
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I guess it's Bradford City gent (their current or recent mascot).
Cec Podd was a memorable Bradford player.Comment
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The City Gent. Who precedes the fanzine of that name by a couple of decades
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_GentThe name for the fanzine was taken from the mascot for Bradford City A.F.C. that was introduced in the 1960s by the club.[4] and the design of the character was based on then chairman Stafford Heginbotham.Comment
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It's the City Gent mascot, I think. Is the fanzine named after him?
Edit: barely a podium finish.Comment
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Newcastle United 1976:
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Arsenal 1977:
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I can't recall ever seeing a match team (or squad here) listed in alphabetical order before. Tricky move.Comment
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Wasn’t there a programme cover, in the 80’s I believe, I’m sure it was a colour page, of a team’s Christmas do and a player is dressed as a Nazi?Comment
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City Gent is a less disturbing figure than his contemporary Sandy Saddler, who looks to have escaped from a remake of The Fly set in a livery stable.
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I was at the both Merseyside FA Cup ties on that 1974 weekend. Liverpool 0-0 Carlisle on the Saturday and Everton 0-0 WBA on the Sunday.
For the Everton game you were issued with a team sheet as you entered which was the same price as the admission.Comment
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Yes, Frank McAvennie on the cover of a West Ham programme with another player in blackface insideOriginally posted by Jumbo McGinnis View PostComment
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Arsenal v West Ham, 10th April 1943
Wartime programmes were almost all single sheets, this was no different but one snippet was very poignant - Leslie was shot down and killed whilst returning from Holland in his Spitfire. Just 21 years old.
Last edited by colchestersid; 21-09-2020, 15:24.Comment
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That's sad. On a sort of related poignant note I came across this pen portrait from a 1977 Man City programme:
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I saw him score a consolation goal for Carlisle in an absolute hammering at Newcastle on Easter Monday in 1984, which dates it as being one of his last games for Carlisle. It was an absolute screamer and elicited a round of applause from the Newcastle fans around us (we were on comps in the home stand). I was trying to look up whether Newcastle were 5-0 at the time (it finished 5-1 anyway) and found this, which I can't remember from the time:
April 1984 saw Newcastle on the verge of gaining promotion and looking forward to entertaining Carlisle United on Easter Monday. However that game was briefly in some doubt when protestors broke into SJP and daubed slogans on the pitch protesting the innocence of a local man found guilty of murder.
A telephone call claiming responsibility for the vandalism also alleged that broken glass had been scattered across the playing surface. In the event that proved to be false and after inspecting the pitch, the SJP ground staff covered up the offending graffiti and the match went ahead. Newcastle won 5-1.Comment
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