| The History of the Rangers Shirt - Away/Change Strips |
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Background
The first pictorial evidence we
have of Rangers wearing a change kit comes from 1877 (now on sale from Toffs).
The white jerseys carry a six-pointed star and are believed to belong
to a rowing club that several Rangers' players were members of. Also of
interest are the elegant hooped hose, probably made of cotton and much
lighter in manufacture than the thick woolen stockings that became
standard in the 1880s.
The sparse information HFK has managed to uncover to date suggests that when Rangers needed to change, they wore white shirts with their usual white knickers and home stockings until 1921. In 1921 Rangers' light blue home shirts became royal blue and black shorts were adopted to wear with the usual white change shirts. This simple colour scheme held until 1938 when old-fashioned one inch hoops in blue and white were adopted. The 1950s are rather confusing: Rangers normal blue shirts were augmented with a red, white and navy blue horizontal band for some Scottish League Cup and FA Cup games. Red shirts were adopted in 1950 when a change was needed and these were augmented with a blue and white band the following season. A white version, with a red and blue band also appeared. Dates are not yet confirmed so please This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you can assist. During the 1960s Rangers wore blue and white striped shirts when a change was needed. We have a gap in our records between 1968 and 1978 but when in 1978 Umbro introduced their smart blue home shirts with white collars, trimmed in red and blue, they produced a red version as well. Between 1982 and 1992 the team's change kits were basically white shirts with blue shorts trimmed with red although the 1987-88 strip, diagonal red and white halved tops with black shorts, broke the mould. Given the pressure to disassociate the Old Firm clubs from their sectarian pasts that gathered momentum in the 1990s, the decision to adopt an orange and navy blue change kit in 1993 might be considered insensitive (given the obvious associations with the Orange Order) but over the next five seasons the team wore "neutral" red, white and black strips. In the new millenium most change kits have involved a reworking of Rangers' traditional blue, white and red colours with white predominant, with a couple of interesting third kits in different colours. Sources
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Archive Articles History of the Rangers Shirt Away/Change Strips