The Definite Article – By MerseyPete
Posted on March 19, 2008
Filed Under Articles By MerseyPete
I’m not sure when Small Heath started wearing royal blue. The first reference I’ve ever seen is from 1894, when we won our first promotion and the players tied their blue shirts to the train into New Street. So it may be that we wore blue from the very first kick, back in 1875 – perhaps some Blues historians can help me here. But obviously our shirts gave rise to our nickname – the same as most other teams who wear blue. Or is it? In fact I think our nickname, or at least the way it’s used, is unique. I’ll explain in a few moments.
Of course, I always hate it when another team is referred to as ‘the blues’ – did you see that recent headline pop up on the Blues search engines – ‘Blues reach Euro quarter finals’? A second’s dreaming, but it was Chelsea, of course – those programmers aren’t as clever as they make out. Once I’d recovered I had that familiar sense of resentment at other clubs stealing our nickname.
But first of all, nicknames in general. One of the dafter episodes of recent* times was, I thought, when Sunderland fans were asked to vote on a new ‘official’ nickname. First of all, the whole idea of an ‘official’ nickname sounds stupid – by their nature they should be informal and therefore entirely UNofficial. But money talks, I suppose. Arsenal, after all, aren’t satisfied with having a copyright on the nickname ‘Gunners’ (and therefore a cash cow), they also tried to copyright ‘Gooners’, which is the fans’ own ironic subversion of the ‘official’ name. Everything has a price nowadays.
But in Sunderland’s case, why did they need a new nickname at all? Well they’d just left Roker Park and if you look at the reference books their nickname was often listed as ‘Rokermen’ or ‘Rokerites’. Now, over the years I’ve known a few Sunderland fans and not one of them has ever called their team the Rokerites. It sounded to me like a name that was maybe used by headline writers in the local papers, but not much by fans themselves. And although they came up with some convoluted explanation of why the ‘Black Cats’ was somehow appropriate it seemed hopelessly contrived to me.
In the football annuals you used to get nicknames listed for every club, of course, and they always had some gems. ‘Citizens’ for Manchester City for example. Hmm, I don’t think so! In fact I doubt if that’s ever been used – it was probably thought up because they don’t really have a nickname, other than ‘City’, which is fair enough as it distinguishes them from Surrey United. Chelsea were usually listed as the ‘Pensioners’ which they may have used before the war, I suppose. But maybe they should go back to using it – or ‘bloated plutocrats’, which may be hard to fit into a chant – instead of using our nickname. Mind you, a nickname related to how your owners made their money could lead us into some dangerous territory…
I thought that Fulham must have stopped calling themselves the ‘Cottagers’ out of sheer embarrassment but, unlikely as it seems, Fulham fans still do use it. They’re just so laid back about this sort of thing in London aren’t they? Rotherham appear in my old Rothmans as ‘the Merry Millers’. Well, they are the Millers (from the steel industry I think) but ‘Merry’? From Rotherham? I don’t think so.
The best nicknames as far as I’m concerned are those which sprang from the traditions of the area, such as Stockport and Luton being called the ‘Hatters’ after old local industries. Rugby League used to be very strong on these – Widnes were the ‘Chemics’, and Warrington’ ‘The Wire’, again after local industries. Although local fans still use those names, they had to be dispensed with when Rugby League decided it need American style club names. So you get Widnes Vikings (just about sustainable, I suppose as there we Viking settlements in this part of the world), but I don’t know where ‘Warrington Wolves’ came from. Maybe if the 39th game ever comes to fruition we’ll have to be renamed the Birmingham Blue Sox.
I’m rambling here, so back to Birmingham City. There are of course, loads of teams who wear blue and many of them do call themselves ‘the blues’. Everton, who still have a ‘proper’ nickname (‘Toffees’ – still in use but more by the local press than by the fans) do call themselves the blues, and as they are nearly as old as us and do wear blue (though it wasn’t their original colour – that was salmon pink and navy stripes) I don’t suppose we can complain. But if you ask an Evertonian who they support they will say ‘Everton’ or ‘the blues’. If you ask a Birmingham fan they will answer ‘Blues’ (if they’re talking to someone locally, anyway). And there’s the difference – the missing definite article*.
In other words, there are lots of team called ‘the blues’, but only one ‘Blues’. You might think this is a bit like a theological argument but the way we use the name is different to – as far as I know – everybody else. You’d never read a report of Everton or Chelsea saying that – for instance, ‘Blues played really well’**; it would say ‘the Blues’.
So, sod ‘em, I say – they can all be the blues if they want, but there’s only one Blues!
* My definition of ‘recent’ is anything in the last 15 years.
** If you’re struggling with this – do they teach text language instead of grammar nowadays? – have a look at Lynn Truss’s “Eats, shoots and leaves”, a popular guide to grammar and punctuation.
*** Any smart alec who says you wouldn’t read it in one of our reports either should leave this site immediately. And don’t come back!
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Thanks for a really enjoyable article Mersey Pete. Glad I’m not the only one who feels aggrieved when Chelsea are described as the blues, and definitely worth noting we are the only fans that refer to the team as just “Blues”.
For your interest, the following link extensively details all of our kits from day one: http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Birmingham_City/Birmingham_City.htm
Personally, I’d be pretty happy to see a revisit of the opening 1875 diagonal strip!
we should start a campaign to get the diagonal strip… looks smart and different – but the years 1990 to 1993 – were shocking!