Following on from Bob's post ..

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Originally Posted by A Quiet Monkfish

The 'sky blue' shirts of the 1920's were then presumably to mimic the lighter blue element of the Cardiff rugby shirts - assuming they were then playing in the dark/light blue hoops. I always wondered about that..

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Interesting piece here about Cardiff RFC's first kit and the origins of the pale blue used in their kit. Must say, I'd have much prefered the nickname "Pirates" to "Bluebirds".

https://cardiffrugbymuseum.org/artic...d-and-counting

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Originally Posted by A Quiet Monkfish

The 'sky blue' shirts of the 1920's were then presumably to mimic the lighter blue element of the Cardiff rugby shirts - assuming they were then playing in the dark/light blue hoops. I always wondered about that..

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I think so. It's my belief, anyway. As I say, the rugby club was already very well-established and drawing healthy crowds for the time, so I think City attempted to draw support from the area by playing in a colour already identified with sport in the city.

Newport's story is funny - they chose their colours mainly to mimic Wolves due to the number of Wolves fans who had moved to the Newport area to work in the local steelworks. Their football club's choice of colours also matched Newport's rugby club.

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Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

My theories based on many hours of research in the central library:

Blue shirts (which were initially a lot lighter in colour) were chosen to mimic the rugby club, who were already very well established by the time Cardiff City became a professional football club. Incidentally, the early Cardiff City never played in the Riverside colours. Although CCFC was a further development of Riverside in some respects, they were basically two different clubs in reality. One was a parks team. The other was a newly-formed professional football club.

The original nickname of Cardiff City was the Citizens. By the early-Twenties when the club had entered the Football League, the team was being referred to in the local press as both the Citizens and the Bluebirds. I believe the Belgian play is a red herring. I reckon Bluebirds became favoured by City fans and the press in answer to local rivals Bristol City being the Robins and Swansea City being the Swans.

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The “Bird name” theory does sound more plausible than a Belgian play.
It’s been said that this season is all about Birds names, with the Magpies, the Eagles and the Cockerels winning the cups on offer so far.
Typical Cardiff City, that we contribute by getting relegated ☹️

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Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

I reckon Bluebirds became favoured by City fans and the press in answer to local rivals Bristol City being the Robins and Swansea City being the Swans.

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Swansea Town, Shirley.

Interesting theory, though.

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Originally Posted by The Bloop

The Harlem Globetrotters played at Ninian Park in the late 60s.
Cardiff Rugby (union) played matches at both NP and CCS.

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I was there with my dad for the Harlem Globetrotters. They were bloody tall.