1977 card, front and back

There had been a glut of City related cards at the start of the 1970′s, the high profile appointment of Terry Neill as manager saw to that, but the number of Tigers player cards dwindled as the decade drew to a close and we tumbled down the divisions. The notable exception was the inclusion of Billy Bremner in the 1977 and 1978 editions of the Topps Chewing Gum cards.   (more…)

The Carreras cigarette company gave various cards away with their cancer sticks in the 1930′s, including sets entitled Famous Soldiers, British Prime Minsters and Amusing Tricks & How To Do Them.

Among the 1936 Popular Footballers set of 48 cards was MM Holmes of City, number 25 in the set. Holmes, as the back of the card tell us, was a school master in Grimsby, and joined the Tigers from Grimsby Town in 1935.

Collectors could buy an official album in which to showcase all 48 cards, at a cost of one penny.

City ditched their black and amber colour scheme in 1936, instead wearing what was described as ‘ultramarine’, loosely based on the city of Hull’s civic colours.

City wore the same shade of blue after the second World War when amber dye, (or orange, as new owner Harold Needler wanted City to play in orange shirts, white shorts and orange socks with blue trim) was deemed prohibitively expensive by the board of trade.

“Got, got, got, NEEEEEED!”

Football stickers were the currency of the playground when I was a kid, they might still be now, I don’t know, or maybe Bluetoothed happy slapping videos are the things swapped nowadays. Anyway, nothing ingrains a team’s players onto a schoolboy’s consciousness than the mugshot on a sticker you’ve just bought or swapped, I can recall the 1986 St. Mirren defence and West Brom’s odd no-smoking logo sponsor patch because of Panini stickers, and no doubt kids in Diss, Bognor and Devizes know who Kamil Zayatte is because of the 2009 stickers.

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