What colour is Manchester City blue?

[Mike N]

I remember reading City used to play in cornflower blue in the 30's whatever that is!

 

[yerwot?]

Slow news day?

is it that obvious? :) zzzzz

 

[xgorton]

Powder blue when I painted my football rattle back in the early 60s.

 

[Dr Dweeb]

We played in 'Field Blue' a couple of seasons ago. The all blue with navy trim. One of our worst ever kits.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I remember reading City used to play in cornflower blue in the 30's whatever that is!

 

[Gary James]

Our original colours (blue, white and maroon) come from the colours of the Masonic Lodge, which had a strong link with us in days of yore. The same is true of other clubs (Villa etc); so for the true city blue look to Masonic colours. You could google it, but I doubt you'll get access without rolling up your trouser leg and giving the funny handshake.

Unfortunately that's a myth. There is no evidence, just lots of people claiming it as fact with various explanations none of which stand up. I go on about this quite a bit in my new MCFC Folklore book: . I do think there was a Masonic influence with our black kit and white cross pattee of 1884 (Gorton AFC - not St Mark's as is often claimed or Maltese cross for that matter) but the blue and white story doesn't add up. The articles that have been written on the Masonic colours ignore several key facts. The main myth that circulates is that the club's debts were paid off by senior Masons in 1894 to allow MCFC to become established and that an agreement was made for City to change their colours to pale blue and white. This overlooks the fact that Lawrence Furniss paid off most of Ardwick's debts; that City was established before Ardwick closed down (they played on after MCFC was established); and that Ardwick were already wearing the colours (and had been since 1890 maybe earlier) after wearing royal blue and white stripes in 1887.

In terms of the actual description and shade of blue.... it's changed a lot with Cambridge Blue being the usual description in the early days; then Pale Blue or Sky Blue (Sky Blue appears in lots of annuals/yearbooks etc from the 1920s onwards).

 

[Gary James]

When I first started going to see the blues in the early 60’s a lot around me used to shout “come on you dolly blues”

I didn’t really understand that meaning until my nan said a “dolly” was a light blue sort of dye added to the washing!!

I once had a researcher connected with the company that owned the Dolly Blue brand (it was a cleaning product that made washing cleaner than clean or some such silly comment but actually made it slightly blue too). He claimed the company believed MCFC wore blue because our white shirts had been in the Dolly Blue too long. I pointed out that this was another myth but it's a nice angle.

 

[Gary James]

That bit is simply not true, mate.

We've worn navy socks for over 80 years, far more than any other colour.

http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Manchester_City/Manchester_City.htm

Don't believe everything you read on there. Some of those Navy socks are probably black - sock colours were not often recorded and people have assumed navy far too often I think.

 

[Gary James]

I remember reading City used to play in cornflower blue in the 30's whatever that is!

That was the 1926 FA Cup final. It's a darker shade than normal. Quite a good colour but City lost the final and dropped the colour.

 

[Shaelumstash]

Don't believe everything you read on there. Some of those Navy socks are probably black - sock colours were not often recorded and people have assumed navy far too often I think.

What's the earliest record we have that we were definitely wearing navy socks? I assume there must still be blues alive now who could confirm whether we wore them in the 40s / 50s?