Football From A Different Age

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Over the years society changes and standards that are in place now would make those of bygone years seem strange or unacceptable in comparison. MEHSTG have found some examples of what went on in old football programmes in the past.
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Before Hartlepool turned a dark part of the town’s history into the cuddly mascot H’Angus the Monkey (who later swept to power as Mayor of the town on a manifesto of giving everyone in Hartlepool a banana), the club gave a nod to it on their programme cover. Back in the late 1790s/early 1800s, a French fishing vessel was shipwrecked up on the shore of the town.  With County Durham in the grip of fear of an invasion with the Napoleonic War in full flight, the boat’s pet monkey was washed up on the shore. Never having seen a monkey or anyone from France before, the locals feared that it was a French spy and tried it, finding it guilty and sentencing it to death. The monkey was hung on the beach. The image in the middle of the three just above the opposition on the programme cover provides a grim reminder of the unseemly historical event.
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1971 – Walt Disney World was opening in Florida, Led Zeppelin 4 was released and the first single-chip micro-processor was released by Intel. Meanwhile, Coventry were publishing a large format magazine style programme for their home matches. On the rear cover of these programmes (Burnley – 7th September, Southampton – 18th August and Nottingham Forest  – 11th September), the Sky Blues were featuring photos of “Girl of the Match”.  Other clubs in the 1960 and 1970s had “Miss (insert club name)” competitions with photos of the winners shown in the programmes, but they were nothing like this.
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Club Christmas parties have hit the headlines over the years and this one involving Bristol City’s players in 1979 seem to have avoided attention. The ‘star turn’, as the programme put it, was comedian Ben Warris, who donned black face to entertain the audience. And in Bristol of all places !
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