Links With The Past: Davie Gibson’s Shirt
This shirt, which has recently been brought to the Club’s attention by Paul Timperley, was worn by Scotland international inside-left Davie Gibson, who played a total of 339 games for the Foxes between 1962 and 1970.
This shirt design was introduced on Boxing Day 1962. The away version, worn in the 1963 FA Cup Final, was white with a blue trim. In the early 1960s, the trend of shirts having short sleeves and V-necks (inspired by the Hungary team of 1954) was replaced by shirts having crew-necks and long sleeves (triggered by Real Madrid).
Not only was this shirt of Davie’s an example of this new design trend, it is also associated with one of the most successful spells in the Club’s history. Leicester City were unbeaten in the first 16 league and FA Cup games after the introduction of this design. This sequence of results included a Club record 10 successive league and FA Cup victories.
During this spell, Leicester became known as the ‘Ice Kings’ because the run coincided with the severest winter of the century. Favourites to win the league and FA Cup double five games before the end of the season, City eventually finished fourth in the old First Division and were defeated by relegation-fighting Manchester United in the FA Cup Final.
The home and away versions of this shirt design persisted for four-and-a-half-years until the end of the 1966/67 season. During the life span of this design, the Club had four top-half finishes in the old First Division (1963, 1964, 1966, 1967), an FA Cup Final appearance (1963), a League Cup victory (1964) and another League Cup Final (1965).
Throughout this entire period, Davie Gibson wore the No.10 shirt and barely missed a game. The shirt design is also associated with some other great players. Playing in front of Gordon Banks, they included John Sjoberg, Richie Norman, Frank McLintock, Ian King, Colin Appleton, Howard Riley, Graham Cross, Ken Keyworth, Mike Stringfellow, Bobby Roberts, Derek Dougan, Jackie Sinclair, Peter Rodrigues, Jimmy Goodfellow and a young David Nish.