Not only crests and colours iconise football clubs. So do nicknames. Some nicknames have gone out of fashion to be replaced by new ones.
West Bromwich Albion’s dazzling combination of scarlet and blue broad striped jerseys and black knickers with scarlet stripes down the side was too much for their faithful and inspired the name in pre-political correctness days of the ‘Nigger Minstrels’. These days West Bromwich Albion are simply referred to as Albion.
Nicknames generally fall into different categories. The first category comprises of principal occupations of the town, city, borough or county. Other tags are derived from the the club’s name or ground. A third category are animals, birds and insects. Stereotyped and ephemeral colours or shirt patterns, shared with numerous other clubs, could inspire only the commonplace nicknames of ‘The Stripes’, ‘The Blues’, ‘The Reds’ and ‘The Whites’.
However, there are exceptions. The origin of Cardiff City’s nickname, ‘The Bluebirds’ is truly fascinating. It had started being used, along with ‘The Cardiffians’, ‘The City’ and ‘The Citizens’, after the club changed from their first colours of chocolate and amber to royal blue and white, sometime around 1910.
There is a connection with a classic children’s play, called The Blue Bird, written by the Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck in 1909. The bird, a symbol of happiness, is pursued by children who want to imprison it in a cage and the play’s theme urges us not to try to hoard happiness for ourselves. This play had come to the New Theatre in Cardiff in late October 1911. It received good reviews during its six-night run and a week after the production had left town, Maeterlinck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his symbolist plays including The Blue Bird and Pelleas and Mesilande. The publicity surrounding the play’s arrival in the Welsh capital and then Maeterlinck’s honour led to an unknown Cardiff City supporter deciding to call the team, resplendent in their blue strip, ‘The Blue Birds’. Gradually, it emerged as the favoured nickname before being adopted officially by the club.
West Bromwich Albion are also known as ‘The Baggies’. This stems from years ago, when the team were well-known for playing in extra-baggy shorts (or knickers, as they were called then) hence the nickname ‘The Baggies’.
They started off as a club in 1878, when the players (who were from a local works) walked to Wednesbury to buy a ball, and so they formed as ‘West Bromwich Strollers’. They changed to Albion in 1881.
I’m sure you’ll appreciate the accuracy of West Bromwich Albion’s entry once I release it; alphabetical order alert though!.
I seem to recall from my 1940’s schooldays, that WBA were known as “The Throstles”, from the bird on there crest.
‘The Baggies’ may have referred to the pre-war half time process of money from the turnstiles being carried alongside the pitch to the office in money bags.
They are still referred to sometimes as ‘The Throstles’
Local rivals refer to them as ‘tesco’ because their shirts match the Tesco striped bags and logo.
As per Colin I recall growing up in the 50’s and 60’s and WBA were definitely called the “Throstles”. I emigrated in 1968 to Canada and I am sure they were called the Throstles then-so when did “The baggies” start” -its certainly not as old as the “Throstles”-although the reason for it implies it is much older