On the evening of 5 November 1875, while England was celebrating Bonfire Night, two young men gathered friends in a Blackburn hotel and decided to start a football team. That is how Blackburn Rovers was born, a club now 151 years old. It is one of the few teams in the world you recognise instantly from a shirt cut exactly down the middle.

Half blue, half white

The "halves" kit, with one side of the body blue and the other white, is more than a strip to the people of the town: it is considered the colour of Blackburn itself. Early accounts disagree, since the club's minute book mentions a white jersey with a blue and white cap, while photos from 1878 show navy and white. The blue was originally Oxford blue, became Cambridge blue in 1882, and in 1935 the deeper blue we know today was adopted. From the war onwards the blue half was always on the left. In 2013 Nike moved it to the right for the first time in decades, but in 2015 everything went back to where it belonged.

The Shrewsbury old boys

The meeting at the Leger Hotel was organised by John Lewis and Arthur Constantine, old boys of Shrewsbury School. The first year's income only stretched to goalposts and a ball, and on the first pitch the players covered a cattle pit near the centre with boards and turf. The minute book also features a Maltese cross, the same symbol worn by the school teams of Shrewsbury and Malvern. In 1888 Blackburn was one of the founder members of the Football League, and since 1890 it has played at Ewood Park.

A cup team

In its early years Blackburn had one passion above all: the FA Cup. It won the trophy three times in a row, in 1884, 1885 and 1886, and again in 1890 and 1891. In the 1890 final William Townley became the first player to score a hat-trick in an FA Cup final. The sixth cup came in 1928, and between 1912 and 1914 two league titles were added as well.

The steel man and Shearer

In 1991 the club was taken over by Jack Walker, a local steel businessman and lifelong Rovers fan. In October that year he brought in Kenny Dalglish as manager, and in the summer of 1992 he paid an English record 3.5 million pounds for Alan Shearer. In 1994-95 Shearer scored 34 league goals. On the final day Blackburn lost 2-1 at Anfield, but Manchester United only drew 1-1 at West Ham, and the Premier League title went to Lancashire with 89 points to 88.

The champions' shirt

The shirt of that title, made by Asics with McEwan's Lager as sponsor, remains one of the best-loved of the 1990s. The same era produced a tale of bad luck: in 1995-96 the new red away kit began with seven defeats in seven games. The team brought back the previous season's black shirt, and on 13 January 1996 won away at QPR. The badge with the red rose of Lancashire appeared in 1974, and in 1989 came today's crest, with the year 1875 and the motto "Arte et Labore", meaning "by skill and by labour".

150 years and beyond

After the 2002 League Cup, won 2-1 against Tottenham, harder years followed: Venky's bought the club in 2010, relegation from the Premier League came in 2012, and in 2017 the drop to League One, with a return to the Championship a year later. For the 150th anniversary in 2025, Macron designed a commemorative shirt with embossed lines evoking the thorny stem of the rose, blue on the left and white on the right, as always. For Rovers fans who train, there is also the "Fade" gym bag in the club's colours.

Happy birthday, Rovers. From a hotel room on a night of bonfires to the title of 1995, the blue and white halves remain one of the most honest and recognisable shirts in England.

See Blackburn Rovers shirts and merchandise at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Ewood Park – Ronnie Macdonald, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0.