Coventry City’s brown Admiral away kit is one of the most iconic of the late 1970s and early eighties and a new book reveals that it was almost Town's.

Sir Bobby Robson initially showed interest in the Blues donning the brown, officially ‘chocolate’, kit with Admiral even putting together samples before the legendary Town boss had a change of heart.

The tale can be found in full in Get Shirty: The Rise & Fall of Admiral Sportswear by Andy Wells, the story of how a small Midlands underwear firm changed football forever having won the contract to supply kit to England, and then top clubs across the country, Europe and the USA.

Town face the Sky Blues in their brown kit

The book, which is based on an ITV documentary, is published by Conker Editions and is available here.

Photos: Contributed

midastouch added 16:58 - Oct 31 Never knew that! The colour of that kit is the same colour as a lot of Town supporters' pants once we go 2 up!
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runningout added 17:11 - Oct 31 We are only sh*t when we're winning, sh*t when we're winning 🎶 🎵 :-)
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johnwarksshorts added 17:42 - Oct 31 So glad he had change of heart. Its horrible.
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Linkboy13 added 18:03 - Oct 31 Would have hated to have seen us in the Brown stuff reminds me of the Hurst, Lambert era's.
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churchmans81 added 18:04 - Oct 31 Midastouch, now that is very funny. And spot on too. 😀
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MattinLondon added 18:06 - Oct 31 Great kit. Pity we never wore it.
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Westy added 18:29 - Oct 31 Thank goodness we didged the bullet - it was horrendous.
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carlo88 added 20:32 - Oct 31 Love that picture of Gates in full flow.
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JewellintheTown added 07:41 - Nov 1 Brown kind of sums up the 70s really, however I think our 70s blue kits were more iconic.
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SickParrot added 09:26 - Nov 1 If that kit is deemed to be iconic it must be because it was one of the worst ever. I remember seeing it at the time and being amazed that Coventry agreed to have a horrible poo coloured kit. I can only assume that Admiral must have paid them a lot of money to do so. I'm shocked that Sir Bobby considered it but if so it must have been because of the money on offer. Thankfully he must have realised that it would have been a mistake.

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OldClactonBlue added 10:05 - Nov 1 Thank heavens for small mercies
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Barty added 10:59 - Nov 1 That must be the second worst kit ever - its horrible and thank f**k we didn't go for it.
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PortmanTerrorist added 17:42 - Nov 1 You can say what you like, but if we had won a trophy wearing Brown, we would all be calling out for it be used again now ! Fact is Cov were as #### as the kit !
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