Mero
Brownlow Medallist
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2003
- Posts
- 10,086
- Reaction score
- 14,156
- Location
- Vancouver, Canada
- AFL Club
- Essendon
- Other Teams
- I played Ammos in the 80s
If you were to speak to Gregor McCaskie in the Hall of Fame, he would either direct you to me, or he would tell you himself that the most recent evidence shows a Navy jumper for 1873-74, a Navy jumper with Red sash 1875-89, Black jumper with Red Sash 1890-2007.So Essendon FC saying we played our first game in a black jumper with a red sash is a crock?
1873 First game played. Players wore black guernsey with red sash.
What is reported is in Flying High, which that section was written in 1983.
And researched some time before that.
At that point, no-one had bothered to read 'The Footballer' magazines in the State Library from 1873 to 1880.
Or the newspapers listing Essendon as 'the Blue and Reds'.
They didn't because they trusted the article on McCracken in 1912.
Now, that doesn't stop certain people nominating 1873 when it suits them. (Web administrators included.)
And there's probably people who overheard someone else say 1873 and went with it themselves.
But the people actually involved in the history of the club will tell you 1890 was when the Black & Red JUMPERS came in.
Black & red were the official club colours. on the socks from 1873, but not on the jumpers.



