Links With The Past: Peter Shilton's Shirts
Peter Shilton played 348 games for Leicester City between 1966 and 1974 and made 272 appearances for Nottingham Forest between 1977 and 1982, making a total of 620 outing for the two East Midlands clubs. He also won the first 20 of his record number of 125 England caps while at Filbert Street and a further 19 caps at Nottingham Forest.
The signed white shirt dates from Peter’s time at Leicester City. It belongs to Foxes fan and shirt collector Rob O’Donnell. It is one of only four which were made for Peter as part of an all-white goalkeeper’s kit. It was manufactured personally for him by Admiral, a small locally based Wigston firm, which went on to become a world renowned sportwear pioneer. The design on the blue crest carried the initials PS underneath the Admiral logo. It was the first personalised kit ever worn by a player in England. When Peter conceded a goal scored by Liverpool’s Kevin Keegan in the 1974 FA Cup Semi-Final, TV pundit Jimmy Hill felt that the white kit had made Shilton too visible under the floodlights, enabling Keegan to place his shot. This view was hotly contested by Peter in an interview with us a couple of years ago.
The signed yellow and black England goalkeeper shirt belongs to City fan Jill Bocock. It dates from 1981 and 1982 when Peter was playing for Nottingham Forest. In 1981, he was still alternating with Ray Clemence in the England side, but he was first choice ‘keeper for all five of England’s games in the 1982 World Cup in Spain, when England reached the quarter-final stage.
Peter did not wear the Admiral logo shown here in the World Cup matches against France and Spain or, after changing his shirt at half-time, in the second half of the matches against Czechoslovakia and West Germany. In total, Peter wore this shirt design sporting the Admiral logo on five occasions while he was a Nottingham Forest player.