Birmingham City first formed in 1875, by a bunch of cricketers from the Holy Trinity Cricket Club. They wanted to meet up and keep together during the winter months. They obviously wanted to keep warm as well, and let’s face it you cannot do that playing cricket! Before settling for Birmingham City, three other names were used. The first of these was Small Heath Alliance, then just Small Heath. Birmingham followed that, and then finally Birmingham City. The clubs official magazine dated 25/3/72, first heralded the arrival of the then-new badge. Also, on the same day local rag, The Sports Argus also carried the story because it was won in a competition run by the paper. But why? Remember Arsenal and the guy outside the ground selling scarfs without the club’s permission? Well, that’s why. Even as early as 1972, clubs were twigging that there’s gold in them their frills. Interestingly Birmingham were the first club in football history to become a Limited Company. When do you think this happened? 1950s, 60s, 70s? No. 88, 1888 in fact. So they have always been on the ball so to speak.
This is what the Programme as we now call them had to say on that day: “Birmingham City has a new club badge. It will be used on club stationery, player’s equipment etc. The new emblem is needed to prevent business firms exploiting considerable profits from unauthorised use of the old crest. Designed by Birmingham supporter Mr Michael Wood, it will be patented and then no-one can reproduce it without permission from the club”. (PIC 1) The design was chosen in a competition organised by the Sports Argus, which went on to say: “The judges had a difficult task before selecting the entry of Mr Wood, who lives at Meadow View, Burntwood, near Walsall. He is a conversion engineer with the West Midlands Gas Board and art and design are just a hobby”. Marvellous idea, and how good is that to design your team’s badge, the one they wear and kiss on match days. Other clubs have also done this, and to show it was definitely the early 1970s, I have included the picture of Mr Michael Wood as it appeared in the Argus. (PIC 2) This is what the Sports Argus had to say on that day: “Here it is, the new Birmingham City club badge which has been designed by Argus reader Michael Wood. The players will wear it on their jerseys next season and it will also be worn on club blazers and ties. It was picked out from the huge entry in a special competition organised by the Argus”. Blues Commercial Manager Geoff Greaves commented: “We think it is modern and gets away from the normal type of design. It is forward-looking and introduces the globe and the idea of European football which is what everyone at the Blues wants to see at St Andrew’s”.
What he meant to say was “No one can rip us off now”. You see, town crests or even characters lent from it cannot be copyrighted. Even though the excitement at the arrival of this new badge was global so to speak it was not worn on their shirts until the 1976/77 season replacing the simple BCFC initials logo. (PIC 3) As you can see the globe sits on top of a football and the banner in the club’s colour states the name of the club and year founded. The nickname “Blues” is not surprising because they play in blue. Before this as I earlier mentioned the club used the rip offable city coat of arms. (PIC 4) The arms were officially granted in April 1889. The arms in the quarters of the shield are two distinct coats used by the de Bermingham family, who held the manor from the 13th Century until 1527, when Edward de Birmingham was deprived of his property by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, by means of a false charge of riot. The bendwise lozenges appear on the shield of an effigy in the church of St Martin-in-the-Bull Ring, believed to be William de Bermingham. Later members of the family seemed to have quartered the two coats in one shield, but with the quarters reversed. This order of the coats was used by the City for difference. The mural crown, arm and hammer on the crest refer to civic government and industry. The two supporters represent the art and industry. The cupel refers to the jewellery quarter and the anvil refers to the tradition of heavy industry. A cupel is a shallow, porous container in which gold or silver can be refined or assayed by melting with a blast of hot air which oxidises lead or other base metals.
Birmingham’s rivals are many but they love to slag off West Brom a lot. Also, Aston Villa and Wolves can be heard getting derided when Saturday comes. 29,409 can fit into St Andrews Stadium. St Andrews has been the home of Birmingham since 1906, and due to sponsorship deals is now known as St Andrew’s Trillion Trophy Stadium. That’s a lot of trophies. Famous fans include the well known Brum with the golden balls Jasper Carrot. You may like to visit Youtube and type in Jasper Carrot 1976 Cup Final; you may well be pleasantly amused.
The name Birmingham comes from the old English Beormingaham, meaning the home of the Beormingas, indicating that Birmingham was established in the 6th century as the settlement of an Anglian tribal group of that name. Thanks to the unknown source at Birmingham who replied to my letter with all the great badge information, but did not include his or her name on the compliment slip. Feeling blue and need more on BCFC then cheer yourself up by going to www.bcfc.com
