1948. Leicester City’s first crest depicting a fox.

[davieG]

Quote

 

Leicester City Football Club has not always been known as the Foxes.

Football magazines from the 1920s, such as “Football and Sports Favourite” and “All Sports Weekly” refer to the club as the “Knuts” (alluding to filbert nuts), and the “Citizens.”

Matchday programmes of the 1920s consistently used the nickname “The City”.

The only Fox at Filbert Street in the 1920s was Billy Fox, the club’s veteran trainer who had been blinded in the Boer War.

The Directors’ Minutes book from July 1948 provides the first documentary evidence linking Leicester City with foxes.

A single sentence states, “The design for the new jersey crest was approved.”

The first Leicester City badge to feature a Fox.

This design was based on a fox’s head. The artist’s original drawing for this iconic crest, was based on the head (or ‘mask’) of a fox killed by the Atherstone Hunt in 1922.

This ‘mask’ no longer survives, but it was one of a pair, the second one of which does still exist.

Unfortunately the artist’s name is now unknown. These original pictures are owned by Jane Palmer, the daughter of Sydney Needham, who was one of the directors who approved this design.

Throughout the 1948/49 season, when the club reached its first FA Cup Final, Leicester City shirts displayed the first ever crest based on these pictures .

The Leicester City badge worn in the 1949 FA Cup final.

 

Different versions followed until 1983 when it was replaced by a running fox logo.

A motif based on the original pictures is now used on the Club’s Fox and crop brand of clothing.

 

Leicester City’s official historian John Hutchinson uncovers the stories behind some of the items in the club’s extensive collection of historic artefacts. - https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leicester-city-archives-roxburgh-brothers-1790475

 

So we always referred to ourselves as The City and one of our nicknames was Citizens - Hmm where have I heard those names recently?

 

 

[SouthStandUpperTier]

The Knuts?!? Glad that didn't stick.

[davieG]

5 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

The Knuts?!? Glad that didn't stick.

Don't know would have been great for the Walshie era he stuck a few knuts on people.

Sounds a bit more fearsome than fearless in a don't you mess with us way.

[dmayne7]

Big fan of both of those emblems. Make the original fox gold/orange and bring it back...

[Nalis]

3 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

The Knuts?!? Glad that didn't stick.

Dare to think what Google would bring up!

[ozleicester]

Ive been called a k unt for years

Edited 17 July 2018 by ozleicester

[Ted Maul]

'Knuts' and 'Citizens' have to be two of the worst nicknames of all time. 

[Spudulike]

56 minutes ago, Ted Maul said:

'Knuts' and 'Citizens' have to be two of the worst nicknames of all time. 

Man City are the Citizens.... or just City if you watch Sky or the BBC etc. 

[murphy]

3 hours ago, Ted Maul said:

'Knuts' and 'Citizens' have to be two of the worst nicknames of all time. 

Could have been worse:

 

 

 

Introducing Deportivo Wanka from Peru

[ALC Fox]

I love the nickname 'The City'. I know it's not exactly original but perhaps that's why I love it. To me, there is only one 'City': Leicester City.

 

I also like confusing non-football fans who don't know the difference between going 'up town' and 'down the City' 

[Sir Shep]

I remember some fans used to call us filberts but to me we have always been the foxes. 

[Webbo]

Didn't there used to be a Leicester group called The Filberts?

[Spudulike]

1 hour ago, Sir Shep said:

I remember some fans used to call us filberts but to me we have always been the foxes. 

Iirc the Foxes nickname was first used during the Bloomfield era about 1973ish.

[yorkie1999]

Man City are City, we’re The City

[RumbleFox]

Thanks for sharing, interesting.  X

[Sir Shep]

50 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

Iirc the Foxes nickname was first used during the Bloomfield era about 1973ish.

The year I was born then! 

[mad biker]

Who remembers when we were asked to choose between staying City or changing to Fosse ? given a card with City one side and Fosse the other and held them up on a match day :-)

[tom27111]

I believe there is a much more intricate design of this badge that was never used. I think I saw it in one of our programmes a few years ago in the Sven years, possibly Millwall when we lost 3-0?

 

If anyone has a picture of this, could you please post it? It's something I've been looking at getting tattooed.

[Jordan]

I've always thought '48/'49 badge looks like someone making a hand shadow fox than an actual fox, but I suppose that was top-notch design for the era.

 

I also think we need to do more throwback designs. I can't think of any retro-inspired shirts aside from the two black and blue away shirts harking back to the club's first kit (maybe the 2011-12 shirt evokes the 1998-2002, if we're being generous). There's a reason FTers bang on about those double-pinstriped '80s shirts every summer here.

[Webbo]

IIrc the reason we changed badge to the running fox was because the original badge was hard to copyright.

[Vince Vega]

On 17/07/2018 at 14:16, murphy said:

Could have been worse:

 

 

 

Introducing Deportivo Wanka from Peru

Isn't that Denis Wise's old shirt?

[VLC86]

I got this made into a metal plaque to go in my box of bits collected from when we won the league/champions league season.