The Sky Blues had ended the 70’s as one of the many clubs jazzily kitted out by Admiral, but by the start of the 1981-82 season, Chairman Jimmy Hill had come up with the novel idea of incorporating the name and logo of club sponsor Talbot into the design of their shirts.
Such was Hill’s determination to promote Talbot – a locally based car manufacturer – he had even considered changing the club’s name to Coventry Talbot. He settled for this bold kit design with its prominent T emblazoned across the body. Unfortunately for Hill, the Football League were having none of it and prevented Coventry from wearing the shirt for televised games due to their ban on shirt advertising which prevailed until the 1983-84 season.
The team itself were hardly pulling up any trees under Dave Sexton, and in true Coventry City fashion, were just happy to preserve their top division status (proudly doing so from 1967 to 2001).
Wearing the famous Talbot shirt between 1981 and 1983 were players who would move on to bigger clubs in later years such as Gary Gillespie, Terry Gibson, Danny Thomas and Les Sealey.
Classic retro shirts now available from Campo www.camporetro.com
