One of the most sure-fire ways of identifying a club is through its badge. There are some that are so synonymous with the team that has it plastered onto its chest that they’re instantly recognisable, such as the Liverbird that sits upon the Liverpool FC badge, or the Red Devil that you’ll find on Manchester United’s. In the case of Celtic, the club’s badge reflects something of the Irish traditions that the club is often associated with, which has remained the case throughout the club’s existence, even though the exact look of the badge has been altered over the years.
The First Badge
The football club itself was, appropriately enough, formed in a church hall in the Calton area of the city. It was Irish Marist Brother Walfrid who is largely held to be responsible for the formation, hoping to alleviate poverty for those in the East End of Glasgow. The name was given in order to reflect the combined Irish and Scottish roots of the team, as was the look of the badge, which was used for the first time a year after the club’s foundation. Sitting upon a red background was a Celtic cross (as in Celtic with a ‘k’ sound at the start rather than an ’s’). This was the symbol of the Marist Brothers.
The first match played by the new team was one that would be played countless times in the years to come, with Celtic running out 5-2 winners against neighbours Rangers. The kit was all white with a green collar, alongside green socks and black shorts. This new badge remained the one that was used by the football club for nearly 90 years, which might come as something of a surprise to those of you that would more commonly associate Celtic with the four-leafed clover, but that didn’t become part of the club’s kit and folklore until 1977, when the badge changed for the first time.
Introducing the Four-Leafed Clover
The four-leafed clover is one that is synonymous with Ireland, being considered to be lucky as well as unusual. It was in 1977 that a huge change was made to the Celtic badge, seeing the Celtic cross removed altogether and a round crest introduced. The round crest had a black outer and inner border, with the inside being coloured green. The words THE CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB were written in white at the top, whilst at the bottom there were two squiggly lines in white either side of the year of the club’s formation, 1888, which was also written in white.
The very centre of the crest was white, but with a green four-leafed clover with a black border in the middle. The stem of the clover was quite fat originally, whilst on the inside of the four-leafed clover were white lines running where the ‘veins’ of the leaves might otherwise have appeared. This remained the club’s crest for a significantly shorter period than the previous one had been used for, with the club understandably choosing to introduce an update to the crest when it celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 1988, opting for a combination of the old and the new.
The Centenary Crest
As the 100-year anniversary of the club’s foundation rolled around, the hierarchy at Celtic decided that it would make sense to introduce a new badge specifically for the occasion. It maintained the round look that the previous badge had boasted, also keeping the use of the words THE CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB running around the top. What was different, firstly, was the colour scheme, which saw a green border to the circle brought in, as well as a green border to the smaller inner circle. The background was white, with everything else being green, in keeping with the club’s overall look.
The badge saw the return of the Celtic cross, which dominated the centre of the badge, albeit with a much less intricate pattern than had featured on the first badge the club used. On the left of the Celtic cross was the year of the club’s formation, 1888, whilst on the right was the year of the centenary, 1988. Rather than remove the four-leafed clover altogether, the new badge featured it on the bottom, directly beneath the Celtic cross, with the squiggly lines also remaining in place either side of it. This remained the club’s badge for the following six years, only changing again in 1994.
The Modern Badge
In 1994, the club introduced the badge that, to all intents and purposes, is the badge that football supporters of today would recognise. It was not dissimilar to the one from nearly 20 years before, seeing the round nature of it maintained and a thin black line on the border. At the top, the words THE CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB were written in white, whilst the squiggly lines were along the bottom, either side of the year of the club’s formation, 1888. In the middle, the four-leafed clover was more intricate, with the white ‘veins’ being far more numerous in their appearance.
The stem of the four-leafed clover was also much thinner and black, rather than the green it had been before. This remained the badge for the following 13 years, with minor changes brought in in 2007. It was at that time that the greens and blacks used were made slightly bolder, whilst above the crest sits a black star. This is there to represent the club’s European Cup, which had been achieved at the conclusion of the 1966-1967 season when the Bhoys won 2-1 against the Italian side Inter Milan.