When the Federazione
Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) set up the Terza Divisione in 1922, the
commune of Ascoli Piceno didn’t have a team in it. Nor had they in the league
that preceded it – the Promozione – which excluded clubs southeast of
Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. Then in 1923, the FICG established regional
divisions in Lazio, Puglia, Marche and Campania. Marche and Campania had enough
teams to justify the inclusion of two groups – same as the northern leagues. By
1926, Marche had just one, comprising Gruppo Sportivo Vis Pesaro, Vigor
Senigallia, Unione Sportiva Sambenedettese, and Circolo Sportivo Vigor, who were from
Ascoli Piceno.
Circolo Sportivo Vigor actually started off as Candido Augusto Vecchi in
1898, named in honour of a local Garibaldian colonel. Typically, football was
not the association’s main concern, cycling was, and only friendly games
against minor local teams were played. The change of name came about in 1905,
for what Ascoli Calcio’s website mysteriously describes as ‘political reasons’.
It wasn’t until 1919 that football became the primary focus, and the
Unione Sportiva Ascolana was the result. Their cause was helped further when
the municipality elected to build a stadium. The Comunale dei Giardini was completed in 1926, the same year the club was granted entry into
the Terza Divisione (Marche Section), having reverted to their previous designation.
Circolo Sportivo Vigor subsequently came top of their group and so were promoted to the Seconda
Divisione (Group South), which is where they stayed for next few seasons.
In 1929, they changed their name again, to Società Sportiva Ascoli, and
won promotion into the Prima Divisione off the back of it.
Unfortunately, due to the restructuring of the leagues, the Prima Divisione
was the first division in name only and was in effect Italian football’s third
tier. Divided into six interregional groups, the top two teams in the four Northern
groups were then split across another two groups with the winner of each being
allowed into Serie B. The same theory was applied to the two Southern groups,
but with just one spot to play for.
Ascoli never made it beyond the preliminary stages before demoting itself
in 1933, despite having just finished sixth in a group of fourteen. The following year they
went bankrupt, which may explain the decision to voluntarily drop down a
league. If that wasn’t bad enough, the club re-registered as Fascio
Giovanile di Combattimento di Ascoli, albeit just for a season. The second
division then became the first, so the first could become Serie C, and by 1938
Ascoli were competing in it.
We can only assume that throughout all of this Ascoli, under whichever guise,
were wearing black and white striped shirts. ‘The social colours are black and
white,’ is the only thing Ascoli’s website has to say on the subject, and there
are photographs taken in the 1940s to corroborate this. In any case, after the end
of the war Ascoli carried on where they’d left off, but struggled. In 1948 they were relegated to the Promozione, and in 1955 to the Promozione Regionale. To stop the rot, the club merged with
the Società Sportiva Lillo Del Duca to become Associazione Sportiva Del Duca
Ascoli. It seemed to do the trick, and by 1959 they were playing
in group B of Serie C.
It would take just over a decade for Ascoli to finally make it into Serie B, and as soon as they did they
changed their name to Ascoli Calcio 1898. These were the beginnings of the
club’s glory years, when they punched above their weight (Ascoli Piceno is not
a big place). In 1972-73 – their first season in Serie B – Ascoli came fourth, missing out on promotion by a single point. The next year they made
sure of it, coming second, equal to the champions, Varese, on points, but not
goal difference.
As debut seasons in Serie A go, 1974-75 wasn’t bad one. Ascoli placed 12th in what was at that time a 16-team league, and commissioned a new badge.
Whereas their previous insignia had involved some sort of shield – split down
the middle with black and white vertical stripes occupying one half, a
rendering of a castle the other – this iteration was circular with ‘A.S. ASCOLI
1898’ written around its periphery. In 1976 they finished 14th and were relegated.
Within a couple
of years, Ascoli were back in Serie A, as winners of Serie B, wearing gear supplied by Admiral – the English firm’s naval trademark appended to the
right side of the chest. The next season (still in Serie A) the club hooked
up with Pouchain. What Pouchain did for Italian football is a subject in itself,
revolutionising the very notion of what a football strip could be. Graphic
designer Piero Gratton was the man responsible, and for Ascoli he got rid of
the castle and replaced it with a cartoon woodpecker (the team’s nickname is I
Picchi – 'The Woodpeckers'). Unfortunately, the partnership lasted just two
years, whereupon Ascoli partnered up with the Italian jeans company POP84, who
promptly ditched Gratton’s distinctive motif.
A contract with Adidas followed in 1984, and the introduction of another
new badge. Set within a green, rectangular border with rounded corners, a woodpecker was depicted in profile with a modernist simplicity of which Gratton
would surely have approved. On the downside, Adidas’s tenure would be marred by
the presentation of the club’s commercial sponsors: first Olio San Giorgio,
slapped across the chest like an afterthought, and then Norditalia, written
in a jarringly Gothic script. Both versions
were V-necked, neither had a collar.
After a brief sojourn in Serie B, Ascoli switched to Uhlsport. The shirt
was all right, with a narrower stripe and a black collar, but was again let
down by the sponsor: MICROMAX written in white on black in an indistinguishable
font. Adidas returned in 1989 and used the same design as before, although
the new sponsor, COCIF, was easier on the eye than the previous incumbents.
Relegation ensued.
In 1991, after Walter Casagrande’s 22 goals helped secure another
promotion, Ascoli Calcio signed up with Ennerre (NR). At once, industrial washing manufacturer IMESA climbed
on board as commercial sponsor. Utilising the template Ennerre had
provided for Napoli, Atalanta and Roma the previous season, the shirt suddenly looked the business.
In IMESA, Ascoli at last had a typeface that worked: round, bold, uppercase, with
a red dot where the horizontal bar of the letter 'A' would usually be.
The collar was now white, as was the neckline, and stripes were of a satisfying
gauge. Finally, Ennerre’s green logo complimented the green outline of Ascoli’s
stylised badge, which they would soon relinquish.
Ascoli Calcio went straight back down but this time didn’t bounce
straight back up. IMESA jumped ship, COCIF were reinstated, and in 1995 the
club dropped down into Serie C wearing kit made by Admiral. The delineated woodpecker was wheeled out for the club's centenary in 1998, sewn onto the right sleeve, and was then gone again.
