Concordia’s 1907 footballers stepped out in brown long-sleeved turtle-neck skivvies teamed with knickerbockers and long socks. Some years later, however, the adoption of a distinctive jersey created some unforeseen ripples. In 1916 the headmaster of Queen’s School, North Adelaide (1890-1946) vented his extreme annoyance in a letter to Concordia’s headmaster Dr C. F. Graebner. He complained that Concordia had decided on ‘chocolate and gold’, the very colours he believed had been registered for his own school’s football team. Even worse, he discovered that Concordia had gone as far as ordering a supply of the same jerseys he had designed, and that they had even instructed the supplier not to sell them to anyone else!
His letter concludes: ‘I must beg to protest strongly against your infringement of the colours which we have worn for 26 years and especially of the conduct of your football club in an attempt to deprive us of our own colours and design.’
While there is no record of a response to this letter, Concordia continued to retain the colours of brown and gold. However, there were some further developments. In 1920 footballers were wearing long loose white shorts and jerseys with pockets displaying a small gold cross; and by 1923 the jersey displayed a large gold monogram of two Cs linked together in a shape intended to resemble a cross. This was heralded as a marked improvement, and a special hand-coloured photo of the First XVIII was produced.
No comments:
Post a Comment