50 years on, Dolly Digital and the Red Matchday team have recreated one of the most iconic ever AFC programme covers for Friday night’s game against Hibernian. To order your copy online, please click here

Aberdeen FC New Motif 1972

This November marks the 50th anniversary of the first time the current, famous AFC logo was used – on the cover of a matchday programme.

The Aberdeen ‘Match Day Magazine’ of 1972 was one of the best around, certainly in Scotland. The 24-page issue was produced by Aberdeen Journals back then, the local paper group having picked up production in 1971.

The 1972/73 issues were listed as the 2nd volume, which for collectors would have been misleading as the club had produced regular match programmes since before the war.

Up until 1972, the club never had a registered logo or ‘motif’ as it was called back then. Use of the city coat of arms was sporadic and never official. In the 1950s, the use of the AFC letters with a laurel surround was used on match programmes, but never on the Aberdeen kit. That design was altered in the early 1960s when the Dons had the new design on their strips in 1965.

With the opening of the first ever club shop in Nelson Street near Pittodrie in 1972, the club commissioned Donald Addison to produce a new club logo, which in turn would be registered and used on all club merchandise and stationery.

Addison was a lecturer at the city’s Grays School of Art and famously designed the Dons programme covers in the early 1970s and is regarded as a pioneer of programme design. He was interviewed for a book on UK football programme design that was published this year, “1 Shilling: The Football Programme Design Revolution Of 1965-85” by Matthew Caldwell, Alan Dein. The book devotes a whole chapter to his work – he was 84 when interviewed last year, and he had very positive memories of the club.

The design was kept under wraps until November 1972 when it appeared on the cover of the Dons programme for the visit of East Fife, the first time the logo had been seen anywhere. In pre-digital days any exclusives were relatively easy to keep under wraps.

The club announced the new logo in their match programme: “Aberdeen Football Club’s new motif, designed by Mr Donald Addison, has now been officially registered and a picture of it is now on display. In the next few weeks, it will be produced on a wide range of goods with lapel badges, pennants, scarves, tie pins, cuff links, car stickers and key fobs. All articles bearing the clubs official trademark will only be obtainable at The Dons Shop at 57 Nelson Street Aberdeen.”

The new logo depicted the letter ‘A’ in the shape of the then Pittodrie goal stanchions with a ‘ball’ in the net to complete the clever yet simple design. Yet that was not the inspiration for his brilliant design, as he revealed to current Red Matchday artist in residence Dolly Digital when they spoke a few years ago.

“Donald explained that he found himself delayed at an airport while working on the crest and, looking outside at the planes, he was taken by the shape of the tail fin of a plane, which he adapted for the AFC badge. He said that if he hadn’t been delayed, he might not have come up with the design he did.

“Donald was a fantastic designer and he left a lasting legacy with the work he did for AFC. His daughter got in touch a few years back when we did a retro cover reproducing his work and said it had made his day seeing the programme.

“Hopefully, 50 years on from when he first revealed his iconic design, Donald and his family will enjoy Friday night’s cover as well.”

For the record, the game against East Fife on Saturday 11th November 1972 finished 4-3 to Aberdeen, despite the Dons being 2-0 down at half-time.

The game in some ways summed up the 1972/73 season …

1972/73 – the campaign

It was a season that was anything but dull but would ultimately end in disappointment.

Manager Jimmy Bonthrone had already had to deal with the departure of Martin Buchan to Manchester United and would now have to try and cope with the loss of record goalscorer Joe Harper half way through the season.

What made the decision to sell Joe even harder to take for Aberdeen fans, was the fact he had formed a brilliant partnership with Drew Jarvie. The two players had formed an instant understanding and scored a good number of goals during the first half of the campaign.

Joe’s departure with a met with a response from the Aberdeen fans that had never been seen before. Many life-long fans supporters vowed never to set foot in the stadium again.

Thankfully most would come back and the two players would be reunited later in the decade.

Joe’s departure did lead to the arrival of Zoltan Varga, the finest foreign import ever to play for the club.

The Hungarian would go and light up the winter months of 1973 with skills that had never been seen before in the Scottish game. Bonthrone would also give a debut to young striker by the name of Willie Miller.

For a brief 30 minutes at Cappielow on the final day of the season, the greatest Don of them all was on the field with the most naturally gifted player ever to wear a red shirt.

Aberdeen would finish the league season in fourth position, two points behind Hibs who were third and a distant 14 points behind Champions Celtic. The two previous seasons Aberdeen had finished second. The Parkhead side would also knock the Dons out of both cup competitions.

There has always been a feeling that if the Aberdeen 1970 Scottish Cup winning side had been kept together in the early 70s, then more silverware would surely have followed. Instead of decade of real highs and lows would follow.

High spots:

Drew Jarvie joins Dons in club record £72,000 transfer from Airdrie.
Harper-Jarvie partnership off to a flier with twelve out of 19 League Cup goals. They would go on and score four hat-tricks between them and Jarvie would finish top scorer with 28 goals.
Remarkable 8-0 win over Falkirk in League Cup, all goals coming in second half.
Zoltan Varga joins Dons from Hertha Berlin following bribery scandal in Germany.
Star-studded Manchester Utd are swept aside in Dons’ 5-2 friendly victory.
Willie Miller makes his first appearance as a substitute in the last game v Morton.
Brechin City welcomed the Dons in Scottish Cup before a record 8,123 Glebe Park crowd.
Joe Harper scores on his Scotland debut against Denmark in Copenhagen.
Bobby Clark earns further caps v Denmark and England.
Aberdeen ’A’ win the Reserve League Championship and the Reserve League Cup.

Low points:

Transfer of Joe Harper to Everton for £180,000 fee in December.
First ever-European defeat at Pittodrie against Borussia MG.
Remarkable comeback against Borussia is futile, on account of three late goals in Nuremberg.
Hibernian win the League Cup despite the Dons defeating them 4-1 in the section.
2-3 defeat in League Cup semi-final at Hampden against Celtic after taking 2-1 lead.
Scottish Cup Quarter-final replay defeat at Pittodrie against Celtic, Billy McNeill scoring.