If you’re even remotely interested in football on the British Isle you’ve heard of the great Scottish side Celtic. It is one of the most storied football clubs on the globe recognizable for the crest and colors of their shirts. But, the worldwide recognizable crest and badge of today wasn’t always there. Back in the early days, the Celts took pride in their Celtic Cross emblem on a blue and later red background.
Come the early days of advertisements and it was soon evident that the broader Celtic fandom is not quite satisfied with the way their badge appears. The idea to have it on all shorts came in later before the days when only away shirts had crests on the front side of shirts. Those Celtic shirts had a three-leafed shamrock as the titular emblem. Luckily for all fans of this great club, it was in the late fifties when things in this department started to make an u-turn.
Soon after the initial fan unrest of the fans things started to change. But, let us take a few steps back to 1887, the year when the club was founded. The club Celtic that we know today was founded by local Scots and Irish immigrants to alleviate the hunger and poverty hitting their communities back in the day. The name Celtic was used to show the connection between the two groups of people who are only set apart by 12 miles of sea between them but with deep roots in both cultures.
Celtic played their first official match in 1888 against local club Glasgow Rangers. On that day, history was made as the match between these two teams is now called the Old Firm and it’s one of the biggest rivalries in all of sports. It was on that day, in May of 1888 that Celtic first introduced their colors, them being white for shirts and black for shorts, while only the collars and socks were green. In 1903 they first debuted the colors we know today, the mixture of white and green while the white socks their players sport today came on the scene in the 1960s.
Soon enough, after winning their first official match, came their first domestic success. After a successful season in 1907/08, the team managed to win the Quadruple. If their success were only three trophies they would have probably stuck with a three-leaved shamrock. Now that they’ve won four trophies they decided to go forward with a four-leaf clover. While the emblem was quick to replace the Irish cross, and it started to be used on various club merchandise and internal awards, it didn’t make the front of the shirt until the 1970s.
The official crest, similar to what we know today, debuted in the 1977/78 season. While this was a monumental event in the history of Celtic, it is well evidenced that the four-leaf clover was used since at least the early 1930s as the official club crest. The one contradiction to this that happened was the club’s published history by their long-serving manager Willie Maley who released it on the club’s 50th anniversary and it contained the Celtic cross as the badge.
Despite this setback, the four-leaf clover pertained. While it wasn’t an official crest before the 1970s it was always part of the club since the early days. Yet, its origin and design remain a mystery to this day as it is not quite clear who got the initial idea for this design. The medals that players received for the club’s success in 1908 were a four-leaf clover designed. The symbol is now part of Celtic’s heritage and it appears that it’s here to stay after more than 100 years of the club’s history.
The Celts Cross made a return on a few occasions, most notably in the 1987/88 and 1988/89 seasons and on some away shirts. But, as much as the cross was dominant, the clover always found its way back, even featuring at the bottom end of a cross. One could argue that it brought good luck to the club in the early days making them one of the world’s most successful clubs both on the domestic scene and internationally. Even by today’s standards, Celtic is one of the biggest clubs on the island and they’re heavily favored to win yet another Scottish title by outlets such as Stake.com and other betting companies.
The last time we saw the cross was in 2003 when the Hoops top was celebrated. It could find its way to the main shirt front in a few years as the club will celebrate its 150th anniversary in little more than a decade. Until that date comes, let’s see what happened in the days when the four-leaf clover was introduced.
History of the Badge
As we already mentioned, everything associated with the club has Irish roots. The colors of the team’s shirts, socks, and shorts are all aligned with the Celt culture. One of the earliest changes to the culture of the club happened when the shirts became what they are today and those are hoop shirts. The initial years saw Celtic wear stripes.
From the inception of the shirts, badges, and crest, it was another 90 years before the four-leaf clover found itself on the front end of the shirt replacing the Celt Cross. The reasons are not what you think. Everyone associated with Celtic FC knew what the four-leaf clover represents. The fact of the matter was that it was not popular back in the day to have the club’s crest on the shirt. Celtic interchanged between a harp, the Celtic Cross, and the 3-leaf shamrock for a while.
The first time anyone saw the 4-leaf used instead of the 3-leaf was in 1938. The Celtic Handbook from that year proudly sported the new emblem and the same was seen during the 50th Year Jubilee Dinner which was held in the then-popular Grosvenor Hotel. Before 1938 it was the 3-leaf shamrock all over the place. It was on goalkeeper shirts, season tickets, plaques, and medals. The four-leaf clover featured only during the year when the team first won the Quadruple, and from then on the 3-leaf was still prominent. Even during the ’60s, the third kit of Celtic held the 3-leaf shamrock as their emblem in one of the most popular away shirts ever that were handed to Celtic from Glasgow from their sister club Belfast Celtic.
So, while the 3-leaf shamrock remained popular through the years, the presence of the 4-leaf clover was always there from as early as 1908. Since the 60s it was the only emblem the club has used. Of course, some exceptions commemorate important dates in the club’s history. During the Centenary season, the club has returned the Celtic Cross emblem commemorating the foundation of the club. This was a highly popular move among the fans, but they also rejoiced when the team returned to their standard badge one year later.
Other exceptions include the shirt and badge the club wore to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the European Cup win in Lisbon. That badge also had Lisbon written on the bottom and of course the words Lisbon Lions & 40th Anniversary with the date 25th May 1967. Another addition was a golden star above the badge marking their sole European Cup win.
Another big change to the badge happened in 1994 due to business reasons. When the club was taken over by Fergus McCann the naming on the badge had to be rewritten. The Celtic Football & Athletic Coy Ltd 1888 was no more and it was replaced by simply The Celtic Football Club 1888. The new owner had a few more ideas regarding the team’s badge. One of the most notorious ones was that the team should incorporate a thistle into the badge to come closer to business owners and that it would be a good marketing move for the team going forward.
Soon enough he understood that Celtic fans are a traditional bunch and that the ways of old will be hard to change. Nothing went of the thistle incorporation. It would be hard to imagine changing the crest that was more than a hundred years old at that point just because of a new owner. But, Celtic fans have nothing but words of praise for McCann as he ushered an era of modern Celtic that more often than not dominated Scottish football at the expense of their fierce rivals Glasgow Rangers. These days the race for the Scottish title is almost always between Celtic and Rangers, and if you’re a fan of horse racing betting you’ll understand when we tell you that the wisest bet in the Scottish Premier League is 1-2 Box bet containing Rangers and Celtic.
Post 1995 Badge
Once the takeover was completed, the new owners had to change the name of the club and the writing on it. The club changed its status from a Private Limited Company to a Public Limited Company, so the changes were legal requirements more than anything else. As we already said, the writing was changed from The Celtic Football and Athletic Coy. Ltd to The Celtic Football Club. The fans were okay with it as there wasn’t an in-club decision about it, but the reasons were legal.
Shortly after the takeover, there were tales that the old crest would be abandoned due to the incorporation of a new, more corporate one. The direction the club was willing to take at that point led by the new ownership was directed more towards the Scottish roots and business side of Scotland’s population. The ideas revolved around introducing a crest that would have a thistle and Celtic tartan. The idea was that the club was to move towards their Scottish links.
While a shift from Irish roots to a more Scottish identity would be a move away from tradition, the owners at that point were sure that they were keeping the traditional aspects of Celtic FC while making it more modern and Scottish in the process.
What they failed to understand is that the 3-leaf shamrock and a four-leaf clover were a part of the club’s identity for more than a century and that there was no chance for traditional fans of the club to accept the new change in direction. A club’s legend claims that a four-leaf clover was found at the center of Celtic Park before the club’s first match. It is hard to persuade fans who believe such stories to accept a new direction. Luckily for both the club’s fans and football in general the change was never made and the Celtic badge remained loyal to its roots.
Modern Era
Modern Celtic fans do not have to worry about their crest. For more than two decades it changed just a little bit. Usually, there were plays with notes of the colors and the design of the clover, but it never moved away from what it traditionally was. During the years, the Celtic Cross emerged on the away kits and anniversary shirts had a changed emblem. But, in essence, it remained what it always was – the most recognizable four-leaf clover badge in the world. The symbol of luck, faith, and hope will remain proudly on the shirts of the Scottish most popular football club.
What The Future Holds?
While modern teams often change their badges, and it is usually for the worse (we’re looking at you Juventus and Atlético de Madrid) we just can’t see it with a traditionally well-run club such as Celtic. The change we can predict will most likely happen in 2037 when the team celebrates 150 years of existence. This anniversary might make a change to the existing crest. If you’re into sports betting online you could make a bet that the Celtic badge will undergo massive changes. We wouldn’t bet on it, but you can.
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