Manchester United

14 Jan 2011

History of Red Devils


In the early 1960's Salford Rugby club toured France wearing red shirts and became known as "The Red Devils". Manager Sir Matt Busby liked the sound of it, thinking that a nasty devil is more intimidating to opponents than angelic babes. He declared Manchester United should also be known as the "The Red Devils" and soon the club began incorporating the devil logo into match programmes and scarves. In 1970 the club badge was redesigned, but now with a cheeky wee devil in the centre holding a pitch-fork. 




The United club crest had originally been the City of Manchester coat of arms. During the mid 60's it became similar to the current design but instead of the devil in the centre it had 3 diagonal yellow lines. 

The "devil badge" was incorporated onto the home shirt for the first time in 1973 after the FA recommended English clubs copyright their crests. It has become one of the most instantly recognisable commercial symbols in the world and has remained virtually unchanged ever since - although in the mid 1980's Adidas added two football boots on each corner and in 1998 the words "Football club" were removed, much to the annoyance of die-hard fans. In the mid 1990's the club introduced the official "fun" matchday mascot "Fred the Red" - a giant Red Devil (who has his own line of less-than-popular kids merchandise). 

No comments:

Post a Comment