Aston Villa was formed in 1874 by 4 members of the local Wesleyan cricket team who named the club after a local mansion of the same name. William McGregor was a Scottish businessman living in the area of Aston, noted for its engineering industry, which employed large numbers of Scots. He wanted to help that part of the city of Birmingham and became involved in the running of the club as a Director and eventually Chairman. A born organiser, it was his drive that led to the formation of the Football League in 1888 with Aston Villa as one of the original 12 founder teams.

Prior to the 1890's Aston Villa played in a range of shirt colours: red and blue hoops, claret, black, blue and white hoops before the adoption of the famous claret and light blue. The origin was due to McGregor's association with Scotland, using the claret of Hearts and the light blue of Rangers together with the image of a lion rampant in the crest. The use of these colours coincided with the club's most successful period in their history when they won 5 League Championships and 3 FA Cups including the Double in 1896/7.

Many clubs copied the colours of other successful teams in the hope it would bring them luck. Tottenham Hotspur adopted the colours of Preston North End when they won the Double and likewise the claret and light blue were subsequently taken up by Burnley, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Walsall and Scunthorpe.

Shirt colours have mainly been a claret body with light blue sleeves although other styles have been used for a short duration (plain, stripes and even halves as in the 1890's whilst the use of one or two light blue rings below the collar line became a feature from 1894 through to 1956).

White shorts have been utilised most, although experiments with plain claret and also light blue have been made. White socks have also appeared sporadically but claret and light blue in a variety of styles have predominated.

The distinctive colours of Aston Villa are one of the most famous in the history of football.

Research was carried out in conjunction with the Club.

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