1968/69 Supporter Complaint Letter

City_Shirts said:
The smart black & red shirt which City wore from the late 60’s onwards was the brainchild of maverick assistant boss Malcolm Allison who sought to emulate the style and success of Italian giants AC Milan. The style was first worn by City on 5th October 1968 but it didn’t get off to the dream start Allison had hoped for with City going down 2-0 to Everton. This caused some distress among the blues faithful seeing their hero’s in red with several complaint letters being received.

As it turned out, the experiment was a roaring success, City wore the changed strip against Leicester when they lifted the 1969 FA Cup Final, from which I’m fortunate enough have Tommy Booth’s match shirt in my collection, then in their ensuing 1970 ECWC Final victory in Vienna against Gornik Zabrze and, just nine days later, in their League Cup win over West Brom so it’s no wonder the Milanese look has kept cropping up in various forms as City’s second or third kit ever since.

A number of City kit manufacturers have attempted to replicate the black & red with Le Coq Sportif using the design over three seasons from 1999-00 to 2001-02 which saw City Promoted twice and relegated once while Reebok produced a similar style for two seasons from 2003-04, the first at the City of Manchester Stadium and 03-04. A return to Umbro from 2009-2012 saw the famous Black & Red stripes return once more with City ending a 44-year wait for a topflight Championship, winning the Premier League in 2011-12 when the stripes were worn in fantastic victories at Spurs and Blackburn to name a few.
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I assume it was Mal who went on to introduce the Inter kit.
He repeated the idea when he went to Palace. Their traditional red was replaced by the Barca Kit and their nickname, the Glaziers, dropped in favour of the Eagles.
 
KS55 said:
I assume it was Mal who went on to introduce the Inter kit.
He repeated the idea when he went to Palace. Their traditional red was replaced by the Barca Kit and their nickname, the Glaziers, dropped in favour of the Eagles.
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City had an Inter kit as well? Blue and Black stripes, or do you mean the Milan Red and Black ?
 
68/69 season we won the cup and I remember sending in my tokens and the front covers of all my away programs from that season for my final ticket,I also put in a letter asking for a ticket for my wife (she was my girl friend) who attended a few games home and away with me.I enclosed a cheque for the price of two tickets and the following week I received the tickets,our first final and a great weekend we had and both of us we're back following season for the League cup final an another victory.
 
Shaggy said:
City had an Inter kit as well? Blue and Black stripes, or do you mean the Milan Red and Black ?
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Indeed, they had black and blue stripes in late 60s, early 70s. Saw them wearing it several times. Not a patch on the Redstripes. I don’t follow the kit history, someone else on here may be able to tell you more.
 
Zapcity said:
Could well be considered a big breach of data protection these days! To be fair, putting people's full name and address in papers/magazines was a bit strange looking back!
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Yes definitely...and it's just dawned on me that I know the family of the letter writer, went to school with his daughter, wouldn't have known otherwise
 
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