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Happy 85th Birthday, Villarreal!

In honor of it having been 85 years since Villarreal CF was founded on March 10, 1923, I scrounged up a touch of history regarding the club's kit, from Phil Ball's book, Morbo: The Story of Spanish Football:

Villarreal, from near Castellón on Spain's eastern coast, made their debut in the top flight in 1998 and brought an unusual kit story with them. Nicknamed, rather obscurely, the Submarines (allegedly after the Beatles song) their yellow shirts date back to 1947 when the son of the club's president travelled to the nearest big shopping city (Valencia) to buy some replacement white shirts and black shorts - then the team's official colours. Unfortunately, when he got to the store there were no white shirts in stock and, with the season about to start, he panicked and bought the only batch remaining, which happened to be yellow. On returning to Villarreal the players thought the shirts were fine, but that they didn't go too well with the black shorts. The president's son, decisive if nothing else, travelled to Castellón this time and bought a batch of white shorts which he subsequently had dyed blue on the vote of the players. The club still sports the combination initiated by this act of democratic aesthetics.

I guess knocking off Barca at the Camp Nou and battling for a Champions League position is not the worst way to start off your 86th year!