Top Tracky! Sports tracksuits are hitting an all time high!
When I was a kid my own team, Sheffield United - the mighty Blades and red and white wizards were, well, rubbish.
Relegated out of the topflight in 1976, riddled with debt from the building off the new cantilever stand that had risen over the legendary cricket wicket in 1975, Tony Currie sold to Leeds and being an ageing squad with no money to be replaced with, things were grim. The only bright point was that, up to 1981, at least, in League position terms, our illustrious neighbours had been worse than us. That was until we dropped through the trapdoor into League Division 4 for the first time in our history following dropping into League Division 3 for the first time in our history a couple of years before. This was after a hint of a brighter dawn following the signing of Argentinian ace Alex Sabella after the ticker tape fun of the 78 World Cup. A couple of years of being kicked to death at The Shay and Field Mill and he was also off up the M1 to Leeds. Still, at least the kits were nice!
At the turn of the 70’s we had first Butka, then Umbro before becoming one of the pioneers of Admiral alongside Leeds United, Manchester United and a few others, and our shirts were mint, but the tracksuits we had were, well, off the scale as far as I was concerned, and I wanted one more than an Evil Knievel stunt cycle, Six Million Dollar Man or shakermaker.
Ours were red with the Club badge, then a city coat of arms, embroidered over the left breast and player name in white on the back. Beautiful.
Back then, getting anything replica for our club from a retail establishment was like finding teeth in a chicken. We had Jack Archer Sports across from the ground who had supplied the Club for the best part of 100 years, was the size of a portaloo and also sold all other sports apparel such as cricket bats and 1.7 calibre pellets for you gat gun as well as re-stringing tennis rackets. Or we had Sugg Sports in town who were a bigger, brighter version without the smell of dubbing, liniment or the smell of food cooking in the kitchen behind a curtain at Archer’s in their living quarters. Lillywhites it wasn’t.
A replica shirt sourced by Mother would end up being a generic red and white from a local shop, often with a fake United badge roughly the size and mass of a dinner platter hand sewn on the front and made from a material so rough that the blood shed from your nipples made it look like someone had stabbed you twice in the chest. I also discovered that a red tracky top from BHS (a) - didn’t look anything like an Admiral one and (b) - got you ridiculed when wearing it, especially when your mother added a dinner plate fake Club badge to the front and then attempted to add your name in white letters on the back that looked like they had been cut out of old curtains badly by someone with a bad case of the shakes.
She actually managed to get me a Forest European Cup '79 Adidas one from Mablethorpe market whilst on holiday, which was an appreciated gesture marred by the fact it was an adult sized large for a 10-year-old and not a Blades one. Still, I harboured a liking for that great Forest side, loved John Robertson and, of course, Cloughie so, whilst at the family caravan on the Lincolnshire coast for the summer I was more than happy to tear round on my Raleigh Chopper in a top so big for my then weedy frame it acted like a sail and either slowed me down to the point it was like trying to peddle up Ben Nevis with one leg or career off at mad speeds if there was a wind behind you. In the end we gave it to a family of six to camp in.
Players kept items of their kit back then as they do today, and over the past few years we have seen an increase of the number of Club and Country issued tracksuit tops, many from that golden age of the game in the 1970’s, and at Graham Budd we have kind of been responsible for turning them into a bit of a collector cult, to the point where some of the player issue beauties are becoming the most popular and sought after pieces in a GB sports sale.
In March we have an almost box fresh Tony Currie blue England Admiral example from 1974, and when I say it's in stunning condition then that’s possibly an understatement - it's everything you could want and more, right down to the white lettering on the back. It comes from TC’s own personal collection and the story behind it is superb - if you haven’t caught the podcast he did with us a short while ago that detailed it make sure that you seek it out because he talks about the game we narrowed it down to, the reason he didn’t come off the bench as a sub and the issues of getting him back to the UK for an urgent operation - incredible. He also talks about favourite players - as a Chelsea fan he adored the great Jimmy Greaves, but also had a love for Charlie Cooke, and we also have a wonderful Chelsea Umbro Orange example c1970 from the training ground of which Cooke himself could well have worn when preparing for a game for that great side. The England Tony Currie Tracksuit comes with an estimate of £2,000-3,000 by the way, and it’s worth every penny of that money. We have no doubt that by the way these tops are shaping up and the interest around them grows, it will reach that and more whilst proving a sound potential investment for the collector - they are just so rare and so nice, particularly in this condition.
Good luck with your bidding, but just remember, if yours is the winning bid for either, it’s probably not wise to ride around wearing it on a Raleigh Chopper!
