The first game in which red poppies were embroidered on the players’ shirts was Leicester City’s Premier League encounter against Graeme Souness’ Blackburn Rovers on November 2, 2003.
Another find made by Club Historian John Hutchinson from the Club’s historical holdings is this 20-year-old shirt that Les Ferdinand wore in the home fixture on Filbert Way.
Today, this invention is a well-known national custom. Ever since the Premier League was so taken by the notion that it sent letters to all of its clubs introducing them to the Leicester City initiative, clubs have taken a cue from the Foxes and staged Remembrance Fixtures, in which the teams wore embroidered poppies.
The players’ unique poppy jerseys were kept back after the game in order to be raffled off in order to support the Royal British Legion. This tradition has persisted to this day.
The actual game was streamed live to soldiers all over the world. In the stadium were around thirty thousand spectators. Leicester won 2-0 in the end thanks to goals from red poppies and Marcus Bent. But this fixture was much more important than the outcome since it started a national tradition that has been carried on every year since.
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