With Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Chelsea coming up, David Bunting of Reddish might just want to give the old good luck charm a dusting off as the Blues look to secure the first silverware of the 2018/19 campaign.
David made this hat when he was 20-years-old, after City had been crowned champions in 1968.
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At the time, his mum worked at Christies Hat Manufacturer in Stockport and managed to bring him home a black bowler hat from which he could create the masterpiece!
David was a Junior Draughtsman at Simon Carves in Cheadle and painted and decorated the bowler hat in the model shop there.
He scoured the shops for the Francis Lee figurine and screwed him to the hat securely.
That season, Francis has incurred an injury to his knee and David wanted to make sure that the figurine was as accurate as possible so placed a small bandage on Francis’ leg!.
On one side of the hat it reads ‘League Champions ’68’, but on the other it reads ‘cup winner ’69’.
David made this hat in the hopes that City would win the FA Cup and wore the hat down to the final in 1969 – thankfully City beat Leicester 1-0, or else he may have had to wait another 12 months before the League Cup was secured in 1970!
The photograph above is of David and his friend, Graham Thewlis, while they were waiting at Manchester Victoria Station for the train down Wembley.
The Manchester Evening News featured the story at the time.
the hat was also shown on the Amazon documentary ‘All or Nothing’ and he’s been enjoying all the phone calls from people who have seen his hat on TV ever since.
Today, David’s treasured hat sits in the City archives - though its spirit will no doubt be at Wembley this Sunday…
The archives team will always welcome more unusual memorabilia whether homemade or otherwise.
Do you have a Peter Barnes Trainer in your loft? Or a rare photograph in your garage? If you have any rare City treasures you’d like to share with the Club - we’d like to hear from you!
