The earliest Falkirk team photo shows one player wearing a shirt with a badge. It looks like a variation on the Maltese Cross and MIGHT have some connection with freemasonry, but there is no conclusive proof of this. The Knights Templar have been known to have similar insignia.
There are no photographs of team shirts with badges on them until the 1930’s.
This one appears on shirts in the Topical Times series of cards. The shield features six gold billets of the Callendar family with a serrated diagonal band across the centre which represents the battlements of the Antonine Wall. On the band is a representation of the parish church – “the Faw’kirk” – which means “the speckled church” . On either side of it are swords and shields to commemorate the two battles of Falkirk (1298 and 1746). The idea of having the lion rampant as the bearer, instead of supporters, comes from the carving on the Cross Well of the Burgh which has been recently restored to its former place in Falkirk High Street.
Falkirk toured Malta and Israel in 1953 and the players wore blazers with the letters FFC on the breast pocket. Very few pictures exist showing this badge and outwith the tour these badges were never used again.
The Highlander badge was the first specifically ‘Falkirk Football Club’ crest. The crest was used by the club in the mid to late fifties and is best remembered for being on the club strips in the 1957 Scottish Cup final.
The design of the crest features the town motto “Touch Ane – Touch A'” along the top and the words “Falkirk Football Club” along the bottom. In the centre is the picture of a highlander presumably from the battle of Falkirk in 1746.
The club has a rather stunning glass window frame with this crest in its centre. It used to hang just above the tunnel at Brockville and is now in storage.
Esso petrol issued a set of club badges in a collection in the early 1970s and the Falkirk crest was given as a simple FFC. This was never the badge on any shirt worn by Falkirk players.
The crest below was the first version of the familiar logo that has been used since the 1970s.
The design is a simple one – a silhouette of the town steeple superimposed upon a football. It was designed by the then manager John Prentice. The crest first appeared in 1970 and remained unchanged until the early 1990s when the increasing use of computers saw slightly altered digital versions make an appearance.
The first change in design of the steeple crest came in 1992 when then chairman Hamish Deans felt the club needed a more modern version as football entered the business age. The new design saw the silhouette of the steeple atop a more modern looking football. Changing the design was controversial and the logo was disliked by the fans. This logo never really took off and appearances of it began to peter out around 1995.
The most recent change in the steeple crest took place at the start of season 1998-99. Director Colin Liddell wanted to link the town and club and create a “Falkirk Brand” In order to achieve this the ‘EST. 1876’ part was removed, which was not popular with the fans, the height of the steeple increased, and the word ‘FALKIRK’ included along the bottom of the crest. This crest is now established as the club’s brand.
Falkirk Football Heritage Trust 