Remembering A Rare Gordon Banks FA Centenary Shirt

Last year, a special England shirt was added to our Heritage Collection. Although it is not a matchworn shirt, its crest commemorates England’s fixture against a star-studded Rest of the World side, which was played on 23 October, 1963 to commemorate the FA’s centenary.

2025-04-01T17:11+01:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

01 Apr, 2025

Remembering A Rare Gordon Banks FA Centenary Shirt

Last year, a special England shirt was added to our Heritage Collection. Although it is not a matchworn shirt, its crest commemorates England’s fixture against a star-studded Rest of the World side, which was played on 23 October, 1963 to commemorate the FA’s centenary.

John Hutchinson

2025-04-01T17:11+01:00

Remembering A Rare Gordon Banks FA Centenary Shirt

Last year, a special England shirt was added to our Heritage Collection. Although it is not a matchworn shirt, its crest commemorates England’s fixture against a star-studded Rest of the World side, which was played on 23 October, 1963 to commemorate the FA’s centenary.

John Hutchinson

2025-04-01T17:11+01:00

Remembering A Rare Gordon Banks FA Centenary Shirt

Last year, a special England shirt was added to our Heritage Collection. Although it is not a matchworn shirt, its crest commemorates England’s fixture against a star-studded Rest of the World side, which was played on 23 October, 1963 to commemorate the FA’s centenary.

John Hutchinson

2025-04-01T17:11+01:00

Remembering A Rare Gordon Banks FA Centenary Shirt

Last year, a special England shirt was added to our Heritage Collection. Although it is not a matchworn shirt, its crest commemorates England’s fixture against a star-studded Rest of the World side, which was played on 23 October, 1963 to commemorate the FA’s centenary.

John Hutchinson

2025-04-01T17:11+01:00

It has been signed by Leicester City’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who played in this game. He had made his England debut six months earlier in April 1963 and this was his sixth appearance for his country. He was in the process of becoming England’s regular goalkeeper, selected above Ron Springett and Tony Waiters.

The centenary game against the Rest of the World side was played at Wembley in front of a capacity crowd of 100,000. It was described at the time as the ‘Match of the Century’ by the renowned BBC commentator Keneth Wolstenholme.

England’s manager was Alf Ramsey, who had formally taken charge of the team in May 1963. He was the first to have sole responsibility for team selection rather than the FA Selection Committee.

The team he selected for the centenary match was Gordon Banks; Jimmy Armfield (captain), Bobby Moore, Maurice Norman, Ray Wilson, Gordon Milne, Bobby Charlton, Jimmy Greaves, Terry Paine and George Eastham. Banks, Moore, Wilson and Charlton became World Cup winners three years later, and Armfield, Greaves, Paine and Eastham were in the World Cup winning squad. Also, Liverpool’s Gordon Milne, who won his fifth cap in this game, became Leicester City’s Manager 20 years later.

The Rest of the World team was full of world-class stars. Captained by Real Madrid’s legendary Alfredo Di Stéfano, their squad of 16, all of whom took some part of the match, included the famous goalkeeper Lev Yashin, nicknamed ‘the Black Panther’, who was considered by many at the time to be the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the game.

Among the other huge stars in the FIFA Rest of the World side were Real Madrid’s Spain international Gento, and his club team-mates, the Hungary (and Spain) international Ferenc Puskás and the France international Raymond Kopa. Scotland’s Denis Law and Jim Baxter were also in the side, as were West German internationals Karl-Heinz Schnellinger and Uwe Seeler, who both later played in the 1966 World Cup Final. Other huge stars in the FIFA side were Portugal’s Eusebio and Brazil’s Djalma Santos.

Before kick-off, the teams were introduced to Prince Philip and the FIFA President Sir Stanley Rous. The score was 0-0 at half-time. Winger Terry Paine scored the opening goal in the 66th minute, Denis Law equalised in the 83rd minute, and then Jimmy Greaves struck England’s winning goal three minutes from time.

We are indeed fortunate to now have this shirt, which evokes memories of such a prestigious occasion, in our collection.

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