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England's Uniforms


 

Many Thanks To
Dave Moor, Simon Monks & Dave Hewett

England's Home Uniform
April1959 to May1965

1954 Home Uniform
1962 Away Uniform
1963 Home Uniform
 
 

P 38 W 21 D 8 L 9 F 111:A 57
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Bukta brought to an end the four-year reign of Umbro as England's kit suppliers, albeit through various distributors, at the end of the 1950s. At first, it was for three games only in 1959, but as the 1960s began, so did a new era for England's kit.

Few will have noticed, as the shirt still appeared to be the same v-necked t-shirt with the emblem sewn on that they had worn since 1954. The practice of adding the opponents' name and the year in a scroll underneath the emblem continued until the end of the season. England's trip to Budapest in May 1960 was the last occasion that the opponents' name would appear on the shirt until the day of David Beckham's free-kick heroics in 2001.

The eagle-eyed may have spotted that the style of number had changed on the back of the shirt and that it was now occasionally navy blue as well as red, instead of being colour-coordinated with the socks, as had been the norm since the war. However, by the 1963-64 season, it had switched to red for all games and would remain red until 1995 (as far as we can tell).

There seemed to be some debate as to what colour the socks should be. They began the 1960-61 season in the same red pair with the white band around the calf. These had been the first choice since 1957, but they then tried out three different designs in consecutive matches before reverting back to the trusty red pair for their end-of-season games in Portugal and Italy. The following season saw a couple more variations, but it was the white pair, with a red and a blue stripe, that finally got the nod as the preferred design in the run-up to the 1962 World Cup in Chile. White was, presumably, felt to be a colour that fewer teams clashed with than red and this decision was borne out by the fact that white has been well and truly established as the first-choice sock colour ever since (aside from a brief retro-dalliance with red again in 2016-17). There was still further tinkering to be done, however. At the 1962 World Cup quarter-final, against Brazil, half of the England team appeared to be in plain white socks, though it was probably due to the stripes being hidden from view by creating a large turnover. The red and blue cadet stripes were eventually discarded when England went on tour at the end of the 1963-64 season, creating the most simple strip combination possible of white and navy blue.

The introduction of short sleeves for every game since 1954 was certainly a step forward in terms of lightweight attire, but it was still recognised that England had to play some games in cold weather and it didn't get much colder than the early months of 1963, known as 'The Big Freeze'. This was probably behind the reason to introduce a long-sleeved version of the v-neck shirt for the colder months. It was also the year of the Football Association's centenary and to commemorate this, a special emblem was introduced (left).

The shirt top left was worn by Johnny Haynes in the 1962 World Cup and is from the Neville Evans National Football Shirt Collection, kindly supplied by curator, Simon Shakeshaft, as is the number-five shirt (second and third from the left), worn by Maurice Norman against East Germany (GDR). Richard Clarke's 'Three Lions - England Match Worn Shirts' Facebook Collection supplied the shirt (to the right) bearing a blue number 11 and worn in 1960.

This shirt was then replaced by a crew-neck long-sleeved version for the Football Association's Centenary celebration match and the following winter, until the short-sleeved v-neck was reinstated briefly at the end of each of the next two seasons in warmer conditions before being replaced permanently by the crew neck for the 1965-66 season.

Thanks to Dave Hewett for spotting that the socks worn against Spain in October 1960 had calf stripes, and to Dave Moor and Simon Monks from historicalkits.co.uk for clarifying the colour of the socks worn against Wales in 1960.

Matches in Which England Wore the 1959 Home White Uniform
1958-59 Please note, between 1957 and 1962, England's first choice socks were red with a white band around the calf.
329 11 April 1959 1-0 vs. Scotland, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London BC HW
334 28 May 1959 8-1 vs. United States, Wrigley Field, Los Angeles Fr AW

Notes

England wore the white home shirt, with blue shorts and (blue change) socks, against USA.
1959-60
336 28 October 1959 2-3 vs. Sweden, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London Fr HL
338 9 April 1960 1-1 vs. Scotland, Hampden Park, Mount Florida, Glasgow BC AD
339 11 May 1960 3-3 vs. Yugoslavia, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London Fr HD
Notes England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts, with white socks with a red and a blue stripe around the calf, against Yugoslavia.
340 15 May 1960 0-3 vs. Spain, El Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid Fr AL
Notes England wore all white; the white home shirt, with the white away change shorts and white socks, with a red and a blue stripe around the calf, against Spain.
341 22 May 1960 0-2 vs. Hungary, Népstadion, Budapest Fr AL
1960-61  
342 8 October 1960 5-2 vs. Northern Ireland, Windsor Park, Belfast BC AW
343 19 October 1960 9-0 vs. Luxembourg, Stade Municipal, Stad Lëtzebuerg WCP AW
344 26 October 1960 4-2 vs. Spain, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London Fr HW

Notes

England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts, with white socks with a red and a blue stripe around the calf, against Spain.
345 23 November 1960 5-1 vs. Wales, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London BC HW

Notes

England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts, with red, blue and white hooped socks, against Wales.
346 15 April 1961 9-3 vs. Scotland, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London BC HW

Notes

England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts, with white socks with a red and a blue stripe around the calf, against Scotland.
347 10 May 1961 8-0 vs. Mexico, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London Fr HW

Notes

England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts, with white socks with a red and a blue stripe around the tops, against Mexico.
348 21 May 1961 1-1 vs. Portugal, Estádio Nacional, Jamor, Lisboa WCP AD
349 24 May 1961 3-2 vs. Italy, Stadio Olimpico, Roma Fr AW
1961-62
351 28 September 1961 4-1 vs. Luxembourg, Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, London WCP HW
352 14 October 1961 1-1 vs. Wales, Ninian Park, Sloper Road, Cardiff BC AD

Notes

England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts and socks, with a white band around the calf, against Wales.
353 25 October 1961 2-0 vs. Portugal, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London WCP HW

Notes

England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts, with white socks with a red and a blue stripe around the tops, against Portugal.
354 22 November 1961 1-1 vs. Northern Ireland, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London BC HD
Notes England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts, with white socks with a red and a blue stripe around the tops, against Northern Ireland.
355 4 April 1962 3-1 vs. Austria, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London Fr HW
356 14 April 1962 0-2 vs. Scotland, Hampden Park, Mount Florida, Glasgow BC AL
  Please note, although the red socks continued to be worn at several matches up until 1963, the white socks, with a red and a blue stripe across the tops, first worn against Mexico, in 1959, began to take precedence from hereon in.
357 9 May 1962 3-1 vs. Switzerland, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London Fr HW
World Cup Finals 1962
359 31 May 1962 1-2 vs. Hungary, Estadio Braden Cooper Co., Rancagua, Chile WCF NL
360 2 June 1962 3-1 vs. Argentina, Estadio Braden Cooper Co., Rancagua, Chile NW

Notes

England wore all white; the white home shirt and socks, with the white change shorts, against Argentina.
362 10 June 1962 1-2 vs. Brazil, Estadio Sausalito, Viña del Mar, Chile WCF NL

Notes

England wore all white; the white home shirt and socks, with the white change shorts, against Brazil.
1962-63
363 3 October 1962 1-1 vs. France, Hillsborough, Sheffield ECP HD
364 20 October 1962 3-1 vs. Northern Ireland, Windsor Park, Belfast BC AW
365 21 November 1962 4-0 vs. Wales, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London HW
  Please note, throughout the Football Association's centenary year of 1963, a commemorative emblem was worn on the shirt.
366 27 February 1963 2-5 vs. France, Parc des Princes, Paris ECP AL
367 6 April 1963 1-2 vs. Scotland, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London BC HL
368 8 May 1963 1-1 vs. Brazil, Empire Stadium, Wembley, London Fr HD

Notes

England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts, with red socks, with a white band around the calf, against Brazil.
370 2 June 1963 2-1 vs. GDR, Zentralstadion, Leipzig Fr AW
371 5 June 1963 8-1 vs. Switzerland, Sankt Jakob Stadium, Basel Fr AW
1963-64
372 12 October 1963 4-0 vs. Wales, Ninian Park, Sloper Road, Cardiff BC AW
  Please note, from this point onwards, England's first-choice socks were plain white.
378 24 May 1964 3-1 vs. Republic of Ireland, Dalymount Park, Dublin Fr AW
Taça das Nações 1964
380 30 May 1964 1-5 vs. Brazil, Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro TC AL

Notes

England wore all white; the white home shirt and socks, with the white change shorts, against Brazil.
1964-65
389 9 May 1965 1-1 vs. Yugoslavia, Stadion Crvena Zvezda, Beograd Fr AD
391 16 May 1965 2-1 vs. Sweden, Nya Ullevi Stadion, Göteborg Fr AW

Notes

England wore all white; the white home shirt and socks, with the white away change shorts, against Sweden.

 

England's Record wearing the 1959 Home Shirt
Type P W D L F A GD FTS CS FAv AAv Pts % W/L
Home 16 10 4 2 52 20 +32 0 4 3.250 1.250 75.0 +8
Away 19 10 4 5 54 31 +23 3 2 2.842 1.632 63.2 +5
Neutral 3 1 0 2 5 6 -1 0 0 1.67 2.00 33.3 -1
Total 38 21 8 9 111 57 +54 3 6 2.921 1.50 65.8 +12

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