Watford

Kit History

Watford Rovers

1881

1883-1889 h r x E

1889-1890 h r x

West Herts Cricket & Football Club & Ground

1890

Formed when Watford Rovers were absorbed into West Herts Club & Ground

1890-1893 s E

1893-1897 h q r s

Watford St Mary's

1894

1894-1898 z

Watford

1898

Formed by the amalgamation of West Herts and Watford St Mary's

1898-1901 q r s

1901-1909 h q s z

1909-1910 s

1910-1914 h s

1914-1919 h

1919-1921 s A

1921-1922 w

1922-1924 s

1927-1928 g s B C D

1928-1929 D

1935-1936 B D

1936-1939 b D

1946-1947 v D

1947-1948 w v D

Aug-cSept 1948 v D

cOct 48-1952 t w v D

1952-1955 b p v D

Aug 1955 v

see notes

Sept 55-1956 v

1956-1957 v

Previous shirts worn in cold weather

1957-March 59 p v

April-May 1959 v

1959-1961 c v

Oct 61-1962 v

See notes

4 April 1962 v

v Reading

Aug-Sept 1962 v

Sept 62-March 63 v

April-May 1963 y

1963-1964 v

Also worn with last season's shorts/socks

1964-1965 v

Oct 64-1965 a v

Worn alongside plain yellow tops

August 1965 v

Sept 65-April 68 v

April-May 68 v

1968-1969 v

1969-Oct 1971 b d j v

Nov 1971-1972 o

1972-1973 j o

1973-Feb 1974 v

March-May 1974 v

Umbro

1974-1976 e j n u v

Umbro

1976-1978 e j n v

Umbro

1977-1978 v

76-78 shirts also worn

Umbro

1978-1979 v

Umbro

1979-1982 c e j

Umbro

1982-1983 c k l

Umbro

1983-1985 c e k l v

Umbro

1985-1988 c e k l

Umbro

1988-1989 k m

Umbro

1989-1991 c i k m

Bukta

1991-1993 c k l

Hummel

1993-1995 c k l

Mizuno

1995-1996 c k l

Mizuno

1996-1997 c k l

Mizuno

1997-1998 c k l

Le Coq Sportif

1998-1999 c k

Le Coq Sportif

1999-2001 c k l

Kit@

2001-2002 c

Kit@

2002-2003 c

Kit@

2003-2005 c k

Diadora

2005-2006 f k

Diadora

2006-2007 f k

Diadora

2007-2008 f v

Diadora

2008-2009 f

Joma

2009-2010 f

Burrda

2010-2011 f

Burrda

2011-2012 f

Puma

2012-2013 f

Puma

2013-2014 f

Puma

2014-2015 f

Puma

2015-2016 f

Dryworld

2016-2017 f

Adidas

2017-2018 f

Adidas

2018-2019 f

Adidas

2019-2020 f

Kelme

2020-2021 f

Kelme

2021-2022 f

Kelme

2022-2023 f

Background

watford fc 1898 The club takes the year of its formation as 1881 when Watford Rovers was formed. in 1890 the club was absorbed into the West Herts Club & Ground to form a football section alongside the other sports supported by the club, which included cricket, tennis and lacrosse.

In 1896, the club joined the Southern League Second Division, turning professional the following year. For a period the town boasted two professional clubs but it quickly became clear that this was not sustainable and in 1898 it was mooted that West Herts and Watford St Mary’s FC merge. It was decided that both teams should complete their fixtures and in May 1898 the FA Council approved the merger and a new name, Watford FC.

The first mention of the club's colours dates from 1888, when their colours were described as blue. Over the next few seasons, press reports researched by Trefor Jones, describe various combinations of olive, scarlet and later orange and yellow or amber and scarlet. More recently (October 2018) Brian Webb discovered a press cutting from September 1889 that describes a match against Caledonians in which the Rovers players wore a variety of shirts including "the discarded light and dark blue." It goes on to say that "the new shirt, when it does appear, is to be in black and two colours, oiley olive and fiery scarlet." It is likely that knickers in various colours were worn at this time.

When the team kicked off as Watford FC in 1898 it was in attractive yellow, red and green vertical stripes. Around the turn of the century, the stripes changed to hoops.

In 1900 Watford won the Southern League Second Division title and in 1915 they won the Southern League championship itself. The hoops had been dropped in 1909 in favour of far more prosaic white shirts and black knickers and in 1914 black and white striped shirts were adopted.

Along with the rest of the Southern league First Division, Watford became founder members of the new Third Division of the Football League in 1920. They made little impression and in 1927, facing serious financial watford fc crest 1927 difficulties, a new start was attempted: the club announced that the unpopular "semi-mourning" black and white strip was dropped in favour of blue and white. Their old nickname of "The Brewers," which had never really caught on, was dropped and the team became "The Blues."

The first evidence of a crest comes from 1927 when a simple shield with lettering appeared on Watford's plain white change shirts: it does not seem to have been worn on the first choice jerseys.

It has long been thought that Watford wore turquoise rather than conventional blue at this time. Graham Brack recalls reading an account by a former player who made his debut in 1936 and who mentioned that this unique colour was adopted in an attempt to avoid the expense of having to buy a set of change shirts (it wouldn't). Firm evidence has, however, proved elusive: the Northampton Chronicle & Echo (27 June 1927) notes a change of colour from black and white to turquoise with white collars but this is not from a match report. The colour is also mentioned in the 1934 Football Encyclopedia but this source has been found to be unreliable. Several items of memorabilia such as lapel badges feature turquoise tops and the colour was also given in some match programmes where Watford were the visiting team. In April 2021, Geoff Allen and Neil Dunham submitted definitive evidence to HFK based on hundreds of match reports and over 150 official Watford match programmes from the period that consistently describe the team's colours as royal blue and white. It would appear that the turquoise and white strip is one of those football myths that arise from a single, erroneous source that is repeated in other documents by lazy writers until it becomes accepted as fact.

watford fc crest 1950s In the seasons preceding the Second World War Watford's performances improved markedly and they finished in fourth place for four consecutive seasons.

After the war, Watford continued to struggle and had to apply for re-election in 1951. watford fc crest 1959 The club crest of the period (which did not appear on team shirts) included a hart (male deer), the symbol of Hertfordshire. This motif would be revived much later on.

For the first few matches of the 1955-56 season the first team borrowed a set of Continental jerseys from the junior team before reverting to their heavier ong sleeved shirts when colder weather set in.

In 1959 Watford adopted gold and black along with a revival of the old crest from 1927: the effect was more or less immediate. In 1960 they won promotion to the Third Division where they stayed for nine seasons before winning promotion to Division Two for the first time in 1969. A year later they reached watford fc crest 1968 the FA Cup semi-final where they were defeated by Chelsea.

In late October 1961 gold shirts with plain black necks were adopted. The older tops. with the WFC crest and black/gold V necks continued to be used and both styes often appeared in the same match. Long sleeved shirts were worn just once in April 1962 before being passed on the reserves.

The "WFC" badge was dropped in 1962 and for much of the decade the team played in yellow rather than gold shirts with no adornments apart from various trims at collar and cuff, very much the fashion of the watford fc crest 1972 period. In 1968, however, in keeping with the new nickname adopted by their supporters' club, a red hornet was embroidered onto the shirts. This seems to have been dropped midway through the 1971-72 season but appeared again, with slightly different lettering, the season after.

A cartoon version watford fc crest 1974 known as "Harry the Hornet" was adopted in 1974 but fripperies like this are rarely popular with hard-core supporters and Harry did not last long. Relegations in 1972 and 1975 took Watford back to Division Four.

In 1976 Watford made yet another change in their colours, this time watford fc crest 1978 to yellow, red and black. A new crest was introduced in 1978 that featured a hart (although it is frequently but incorrectly identified as the head of a moose). This striking image would serve the club for well over 30 years although there have been subtle design changes along the way.

The arrival of pop star Elton John as chairman in 1977 marked the watford fc crest 1979 beginning of a remarkable climb to the top. Graham Taylor was appointed manager and in 1978, “The Hornets” stormed to the Fourth Division title. The following season they reached the semi-finals of the League Cup and won promotion to Division Two.

In 1982 Watford’s dream was realised with promotion to Division One. Against all expectation, they finished in second place behind Liverpool the following season to secure a place in the UEFA Cup. In 1984 they reached the FA Cup final where they lost 0-2 to Everton.

In 1987 Taylor resigned and was replaced by Dave Bassett. Watford were relegated in 1988 and, having narrowly missed promotion in their watford fc centenary crest first season, the club struggled. In 1996, Graham Taylor returned as general manager but he could not prevent relegation to Nationwide Division Two (formerly the Third Division).

In 1998 they won the championship and a year later, they beat Bolton Wanderers in the play-off final to earn a place in the Premier watford fc crest 2002 League. This time they could not hold on to their status and were relegated the following season, seven points adrift at the foot of the table.

Watford made semi final appearances in the FA Cup (2003) and League Cup (2005) while in the second flight before they unexpectedly beat Leeds United in the play-off final to make another brief return to the Premiership. To mark the occasion, which coincided with their 125th anniversary, the watford fc crest 125 years club adopted a kit featuring red shorts not unlike the one worn in the First Division during the 1980s and a suitably modified crest.

In June 2012 ownership was transferred from Laurence Bassini to the Pozzo family who had previously owned the Italian club, Udinese and three seasons later they won promotion back to the Premier League having finished as runners-up in the Championship.

For the 2018-19 season, striped shirts were introduced, a startling break with tradition. That season the team reached the FA Cup final for only the second time in their history but came up against Manchester City at their peak and on the way to a domestic treble. Their 6-0 defeat equalled the record set in the 1903 final. The following August tradition was also abandoned and a halved shirt was worn during what proved to be a relegation season. Rather than return to their familiar style, an outlandish design from the Spanish sportswear manufacturer Kelme was introduced for their first season back in the Championship. They finished as runners-up and returned to the Premier League at the first time of asking but went straight down again.

Historical Football Kits

Kit History

Background

Sources