Associazione Calcio Hellas was named in honour of the
Hellenic Republic at the suggestion of Professor Decio Corubolo, who taught
Greek at the Liceo ginnasio statale Scipione Maffei. Rather than wearing
the colours that this association implied, the club opted for black and white
halved shirts. The year this happened – 1903 – football was only played
professionally within the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria, and so A.C.
Hellas had to content itself with friendly games against local sides. By the
time they found themselves competing in the Prima Categoria (Emilia-Veneto
division) in 1910, they were sporting the colours of the city of Verona, derived
from the municipality’s coat of arms – a yellow cross against a blue
background.
In 1919 A.C. Hellas merged with F.C. Verona to become Football
Club Hellas Verona. Ten years later, at the behest of the fascist regime, two
more teams were assimilated: Bentegodi and Scaligera. The
resulting enterprise was retitled Associazione Calcio Verona, which may or may
not have been intended as an anti-Greco gesture (by 1940 Italy and Greece would
be at war with each other). Unfortunately, Hellas Verona had just finished
Group B of the Divisione Nazionale in 13th place, thus failing to
qualify for Serie A’s inaugural season.
World War II saw A.C. Verona relegated to Serie C,
although they were back in Serie B by the end of it. In the meantime they
experimented with a number of configurations – such as grey shirts with a
horizontal blue and yellow band around the middle in 1946-47 – before settling for
yellow shirts and blue shorts.
After coming close in 1948, Verona were promoted to
Serie A in 1956. To celebrate they adopted to a kit resembling that of Boca
Juniors, but were subsequently relegated. The following year Verona absorbed
yet another local team, by the name of A.S. Hellas. Sensing an opportunity to
connect with its past, the club rechristened itself Associazione Calcio Hellas
Verona. Another change or colours: blue shorts, white jerseys with blue
sleeves, and hint of yellow adorning the neckline. It’s uncertain how long they
persisted with this arrangement but it appears that by the end of the decade
their shirts were once again yellow.
Hellas Verona returned to Serie A in 1968 wearing blue
and yellow vertically striped jerseys paired with black shorts – had been since
1964. The team’s second spell in Italy’s top flight was relatively successful,
lasting six consecutive seasons. In 1970 they reverted to yellow shirts with
blue trim, before switching to blue shirts with yellow trim the following year.
Shorts were by now generally white.
1984-85
The strip Verona wore during their title winning
campaign of 1984-85 is considered to be one of their best. Manufactured by Adidas
and sponsored by Canon, it differed slightly from previous kits in that the
shorts were also blue while the shirts incorporated yellow pinstripes. Ricoh
replaced Canon in 1986, then Hummel took over from Adidas in 1987. The
partnership with Hummel lasted three years, culminating in relegation. Adidas
stepped back into the fold, the club were immediately promoted, whereafter Verona
hooked up with German firm Uhlsport.
Verona’s kit for 1991-92 was mediocre. All blue with a
yellow collar and yellow rectangles running down the outside edge of the arms, the
sponsor, Rana, printed in a white, rounded uppercase font, it looked
cheap. Predictably, the away kit was a mere inversion of the home. However,
there existed a superfluous third shirt comprising the same yellow and blue
stripes that had been worn during the second half of the 1960s. Relegation
ensued, but the jersey was reappropriated for home use the following season.
The shirt itself adhered to the same template Uhlsport
were using for U.S. Cremonese. The stripes were of roughly the same gauge, the
fabric was micropatterned in the same manner, both had collars, and the manufacturer’s
logo and club’s badge were sewn on, except the sponsor’s name was black. The
badge is of particular interest. In 1984, club president Ferdinando Chiampan
had commissioned the advertising agency Orti Manara to come up with a new
insignia. The chosen design included two mastiffs facing away from each other,
joined in the middle by a staircase/ladder – symbols relating to the local
heraldry – to form a stylised V, encapsulated within a sort of rhombus. The
first iteration had the mastiffs and the edging rendered in yellow. Uhlsport
inverted the colour scheme and added the colours of the Italian flag within the
top-left border and ‘Verona F.C.’ in the one diametrically opposite.
The Uhlsport years were ineffectual. The reason the
word ‘Hellas’ had been omitted from the revamped badge was because in February 1991
the club had to re-register under a different name to avoid bankruptcy. In 1995
they got their old name back, swapped Uhlsport for Errea, were promoted and
then relegated again. It would get worse before it got better. Hellas
Verona are currently enjoying a second consecutive season in Serie A, their kit
supplied by Macron.
