Cerberus Blade
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Just wondering how many folks out there actually wear a Blades footy scarf - and how you wear it?
When I first started watching football in the early 70's the football scarf was an essential bit of kit. Just about everybody wore one. Fans would hold them aloft at the start of the game to create a barrier of colour showing their support for the team. It was pretty impressive to see.
I remember a Sheffield derby at Hillsboro' in that period. I was on the Leppings Lane end. As the atmosphere started to build before kick-off, the roofless East Bank Kop erupted in a sea of blue and white scarves - then, all of a sudden, there were all these red and white scarves popping up all over the East Bank Kop. Blades fans had infiltrated and were everywhere on that Kop as well. It was brilliant to see such insurgency from our fans. And the scarf, of course, was the symbol of that.
Depending on your age, you would wear your scarf differently. The old blokes from that era, ones that we used to refer to as "flat-caps", wore their scarf in the traditional manner, like this.
Just draped around the neck and hanging down.
But us youngsters of the 70's had to worry about our "street cred". And there were two different ways of wearing a scarf for us, neither of which involved wrapping it around your neck! Like this:
I don't have a picture of real Blades fans with red and white scarves, but this cartoon makes the point. The scarf was either tied to the wrist, or worn through the belt loop of the trousers.
At some point later in the 1970's, it became a bit naff to tie a scarf to your wrist and I think they found their rightful place around the neck again. But, we would still differentiate ourselves from the flat caps, because we didn't just let it drape down idly on either side. We tied it in a proper knot like this:
(True Blade that bloke in the photo!)
In the years that have followed the popularity of scarves amongst football fans seems to have diminished. It's not so common now to see them held aloft at games to show a wall of colour and support for your team. I think that's a real shame. One exception to this is Leeds United. (Sorry to mention those words on here!). But when we played them at Elland Road last season I thought the display of support for their team, using scarves, was very impressive. All sides of the ground (except for our bit of course) waved the white, yellow and blue scarves when their team came out onto the pitch - it was quite an amazing and unusual sight in today's football. Reminded me so much of the atmospheric 70's and imo it really adds some spice to the game. See what I mean in the short video clip below?
I suppose it was helped enormously though by the club giving away 30,000 free scarves to their fans! What a gesture that was!
I wish scarves would make a comeback, big style, for our club. There is no better time to do it than now - whilst we are plying our trade at the very top level of world football. (I feel like typing that last bit again, because I'm still coming to terms with it, "whilst we are plying our trade at the very top level of world football". Nope! Still not sunk in!).
As to how I'd wear mine...I'm not sure. I know how I wouldn't wear it though, I wouldn't wear it like many blokes seem to wear their scarves thesedays. This "trendy" loop knot.
Also known as the "Hoxton knot", "Chelsea knot", "Parisian loop", "French loop" on "Snug Tug". Popularised by fashionista's like David Beckham, this is a scourge on our society imo. It cries out, "look at me, I think I'm trendy" when in fact, what it's really saying is, "look at me, I'm copying everybody else". What's even funnier is that a lot of the time, the scarf is too short to tie it in this way, so they end up with a little bit of a woolly stump sticking up!
yet they think they look "cool" in it.
Nah...I think I might buy myself a new Blades scarf (unless someone in here is ITK and can tell us that the Chairman is going to give us free ones like Leeds did?). I might even go back to tying it to my wrist and digging out my old Doc Marten's as well. Then again, I might not. But, I would like to see the football scarf make a comeback. Any takers?
When I first started watching football in the early 70's the football scarf was an essential bit of kit. Just about everybody wore one. Fans would hold them aloft at the start of the game to create a barrier of colour showing their support for the team. It was pretty impressive to see.
I remember a Sheffield derby at Hillsboro' in that period. I was on the Leppings Lane end. As the atmosphere started to build before kick-off, the roofless East Bank Kop erupted in a sea of blue and white scarves - then, all of a sudden, there were all these red and white scarves popping up all over the East Bank Kop. Blades fans had infiltrated and were everywhere on that Kop as well. It was brilliant to see such insurgency from our fans. And the scarf, of course, was the symbol of that.
Depending on your age, you would wear your scarf differently. The old blokes from that era, ones that we used to refer to as "flat-caps", wore their scarf in the traditional manner, like this.
Just draped around the neck and hanging down.
But us youngsters of the 70's had to worry about our "street cred". And there were two different ways of wearing a scarf for us, neither of which involved wrapping it around your neck! Like this:
I don't have a picture of real Blades fans with red and white scarves, but this cartoon makes the point. The scarf was either tied to the wrist, or worn through the belt loop of the trousers.
At some point later in the 1970's, it became a bit naff to tie a scarf to your wrist and I think they found their rightful place around the neck again. But, we would still differentiate ourselves from the flat caps, because we didn't just let it drape down idly on either side. We tied it in a proper knot like this:
(True Blade that bloke in the photo!)
In the years that have followed the popularity of scarves amongst football fans seems to have diminished. It's not so common now to see them held aloft at games to show a wall of colour and support for your team. I think that's a real shame. One exception to this is Leeds United. (Sorry to mention those words on here!). But when we played them at Elland Road last season I thought the display of support for their team, using scarves, was very impressive. All sides of the ground (except for our bit of course) waved the white, yellow and blue scarves when their team came out onto the pitch - it was quite an amazing and unusual sight in today's football. Reminded me so much of the atmospheric 70's and imo it really adds some spice to the game. See what I mean in the short video clip below?
I suppose it was helped enormously though by the club giving away 30,000 free scarves to their fans! What a gesture that was!
I wish scarves would make a comeback, big style, for our club. There is no better time to do it than now - whilst we are plying our trade at the very top level of world football. (I feel like typing that last bit again, because I'm still coming to terms with it, "whilst we are plying our trade at the very top level of world football". Nope! Still not sunk in!).
As to how I'd wear mine...I'm not sure. I know how I wouldn't wear it though, I wouldn't wear it like many blokes seem to wear their scarves thesedays. This "trendy" loop knot.
Also known as the "Hoxton knot", "Chelsea knot", "Parisian loop", "French loop" on "Snug Tug". Popularised by fashionista's like David Beckham, this is a scourge on our society imo. It cries out, "look at me, I think I'm trendy" when in fact, what it's really saying is, "look at me, I'm copying everybody else". What's even funnier is that a lot of the time, the scarf is too short to tie it in this way, so they end up with a little bit of a woolly stump sticking up!
yet they think they look "cool" in it.Nah...I think I might buy myself a new Blades scarf (unless someone in here is ITK and can tell us that the Chairman is going to give us free ones like Leeds did?). I might even go back to tying it to my wrist and digging out my old Doc Marten's as well. Then again, I might not. But, I would like to see the football scarf make a comeback. Any takers?
