By its nature, this series – see here for other articles – is more likely to include change kits, but there are instances of teams playing games in home-coloured unique kits.
In the past, cup finals were often a source of such outfits, and today’s entry is one of those examples. Next Saturday will mark the 34th anniversary of Norwich City winning the Football League Cup, known as the Milk Cup back then, as they beat Sunderland 1-0 (incidenally, both clubs would be relegated at the end of that season).
At the time, Norwich wore Hummel kits and in 1984-85 they had a fairly simple design, featuring the company’s chevrons down the arms. Hummel also liked to use their identifying marks down the sides of the body – as with Denmark’s Euro 84 kits – and these were the big additions for Norwich’s trip to Wembley.
As well as the commemorative text above the club crest, Norwich also had the logo of their sponsors, Poll Withey, changed from red to black for the occasion.
The latter alteration would become permanent for the 1985-86 promotion season but other than that, the only other difference would be narrow green stripes above and below the sponsor’s logo.
Incidentally, Norwich’s centre-back partnership of Steve Bruce and Dave Watson wore numbers 4 and 6 respectively in the final, as they did all season – see here for a piece on the reluctance of both players to wearing the Norwich number 5 shirt.
