#3 Manchester United
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Known as Newton Heath when they first came into existence, the first badge that the club ever used was just a plain old Lancashire Rose.
Until fairly recently – around the 1970s – did Manchester United change their badge to anything other than Manchester’s coat of arms. The ship on the crest represents the Manchester Ship Canal whilst the globe on top of the earlier badges – normally only used in cup finals or big games – represented the trading power across the world of the city.
The Antelope – wearing a gold chain – and the Lion – wearing a Castle crown, are meant to represent engineering and the fact that the city was born from a Roman settlement known as Castle-field.
A red Lancashire rose also adorned both animals.
When the club decided to update the badge, it did so by keeping the ship but placing it above a ‘red devil’ – a nickname the club had inherited during the mid-1960s. The words ‘Manchester United’ appeared in a scroll above, and ‘Football Club’ in a scroll below. A football was added on either side.
It wasn’t until the 1972/73 season that this crest would feature permanently on the shirt and in 1998, aside from streamlining of the design to make it look more modern, the only change was to lose the words ‘Football Club’ – the top scroll now dominated by the word ‘Manchester’ with the bottom boldly proclaiming ‘United.’
