West Bromwich Albion F.C. - Badge

Badge

Albion's main club badge dates back to the late 1880s, when the club's secretary Tom Smith suggested that a throstle (song thrush) sitting on a crossbar be adopted for the badge. Since then, the club badge has always featured a throstle, usually on a blue and white striped shield, although the crossbar was replaced with a hawthorn branch at some point after the club's move to The Hawthorns. The throstle was chosen because the public house in which the team used to change kept a pet thrush in a cage. It also gave rise to Albion's early nickname, The Throstles. As late as the 1930s, a caged throstle was placed beside the touchline during matches and it was said that it only used to sing if Albion were winning. In 1979 an effigy of a throstle was erected above the half-time scoreboard of the Woodman corner at The Hawthorns, and was returned to the same area of the ground following redevelopment in the early 2000s.

The badge has been subject to various revisions through the years, meaning that the club were unable to register it as a trademark. As a result of this, the badge was re-designed in 2006, incorporating the name of the club for the first time. The new badge gave Albion the legal protection they sought.

The main club badge should be distinguished from the badge displayed on the first team strip, as the two have rarely coincided. No badge appeared on the kit for most of the club's history, although the Stafford knot featured on the team jerseys for part of the 1880s. The West Bromwich town arms were worn on the players' shirts for the 1931, 1935 and 1954 FA Cup finals. The town's Latin motto, "Labor omnia vincit", translates as "labour conquers all things" or "work conquers all". The town arms were revived as the shirt badge from 1994 until 2000, with the throstle moved to the collar of the shirts.

Albion's first regular shirt badge appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s where it was blue. Although it featured the throstle, it did not include the blue and white striped shield of the club badge. A similar design was also used during the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the mid 1970s, a more abstract version of the throstle was used on the club's shirts, while in the late 1970s through to the mid-1980s, an embroidered WBA logo was displayed, a common abbreviation of the club's name in print. Not until the early 21st century did the full club badge appear on the team's shirts.