The Club Vest

The club vest has been in existance since 1911 when it was designed by T Barrie Erskine and approved by the club. Prior to that the uniform was just a white T shirt with black edging and the club crest in a shield on the left breast. It is not the only vest in the world which is white with a capital C on it - when Cornell University competed against the Scottish Universities we were surprised (and pleased) to see that it was white with a maroon C front and back. The great Herb Elliot used to race for an Australian club (whose name I can't remember offhand) whose vest was white with a black C. There was a sports shop in the Clydebank Shopping Centre just after it was opened which agreed to do 13 dozen club tops in various sizes. Unfortunately the owner decided to make the C a three dimensional block C. After some hassle he took them back and had to stand the loss - his instructions were quite clear and then we did not receive a copy of the order he had sent to the manufacturer for approval.

Then there are the Clydesdale and Filly Clubs in the United States which are clubs for the 'larger' athlete. The men are Clydesdales and the women are Fillies and their handicap races are based on weight categories - ie the heavier you are, the bigger allowance you get. They enter teams in most of the mass marathons in the States. We have a T shirt from one such club and it is in a murky green colour with a horses head in the centre at the front. At one time and American entrepreneur tried to copyright the name Clydesdale for athletics purposes and a lengthy law suit was pursued and finally broken largely, but not exclusively, because we had been using the name in an athletics context since 1885.

At odd times in the past members have suggested changing the strip - Dunky Wright wanted narrow black and white hoops and in the picture that Charlie Middler had it looked dire. Then there was a wee crusade for it to changed to black and white vertical stripes but that was easily outvoted. The move that could have had some traction was to have the traditional vest for cross country with the black and white vertical stripes for the track and field team. That failed as well. The basic truth is that any classic sports strip is kept because it is that. Many football clubs have changed the colours or orientation of their jersey but the big teams - Rangers, Celtic, Arsenal and company - never change. When we won the Young Athletes Relay in the eighties and became the first club other than Springburn to win it, there was a boy shouting that 'the club with the big C was winning' and everybody knew exactly who he was talking about.

The women's vest has switched back and forth quite a bit since their inception in the 30's. At first the men would not let them use the big C design but eventually relented after they won the SWCCU Championship three times! In the fifties when I joined the club they wore a kind of blouse with a square cut neck edged in black with the C front and back. It changed subsequently to the familiar white V neck with the club crest in a shield on the front and the name n the back and then Jolene Ennis and a couple of others persuaded the committee to allow them to have the black C back again. And what have we now? Well, I think I've seen both in the same race at times!

The design is clear, unmistakeable and has a great tradition.