Origins

Celebrating 120 years of the Grecians
The St Sidwell’s United story

11.  Nickname and Kit Colours

The use of nicknames for football clubs was already underway when St Sidwell’s United was formed in 1901. It was a useful rallying call for supporters and a good shorthand for reporters. The only question was – what nickname would the new Exeter club have?

Looking at early match reports it seems different nicknames were being tried out.  References to ‘The Saints’ appear in reports in September and October 1901 as indeed did the term ‘The United’. But neither of these really stuck. There were several other Saints (St John’s and St David’s, for example) and St Sidwell’s great rivals were Exeter United.

So it is on 6 December 1901 that the Evening Post football reporter, ‘Daddy’, introduces us to a new nickname. Previewing the following day’s top of the table clash with St David’s he writes ‘if the Grecians should pull the match off they feel assured of obtaining the trophy’.

It was a nickname that certainly caught on.  And not surprisingly because there was a long history of the people from St Sidwell’s parish being known as Grecians. As far back as 1669, an administrative document refers to ‘Grecians of the Parish of St Sidwell’s’. In 1865 Charles Dickens reported that youngsters in St Sidwell’s were ‘called Grecians’.

There is no definitive reason for this but historians seem persuaded that because St Sidwell’s was outside the city walls residents felt themselves akin to the Ancient Greeks besieging Troy.  Indeed, it is said that when a re-enactment of the siege of Troy was held in Southernhay in 1726 that St Sidwell’sparishioners played the parts of the Greeks.

So it was that St Sidwell’s United became The Grecians; a nickname passed on when they changed their name to Exeter City in 1904. Then when the club turned professional in 1908, the Football Express’s ‘Rover’ proposed an informal ballot among supporters to decide on a nickname.

After the vote, he announced: ‘“The Grecians” it must be. Of all the 200 or more suggestions...I think that has most to recommend it.’  He added that ‘the old St Sidwell’s United, the first Club to take soccer seriously in hand in the City, were known as “The Grecians”’, and ‘Exonians living in St Sidwell’s have always been called “Grecians”’.

In terms of kit colours St Sidwell’s United wore green and white from the start, perhaps a nod to Devon’s colours. It set them apart from Exeter United (white shirts with dark shorts) and Exeter Wesleyan United (red and black stripes).

Exeter City continued in green and white until 1910 when at a Southern League home match versus West Ham red and white became the new colours. Rover reflected: ‘I was aware that the players had got tired of the green and white and that several of them got it into their heads that luck would never change while green was a predominate part of the Club’s colours.’