When Shorts Were Short Ep 6

When Shorts Were Short concerns itself solely with what was actually a very narrow window in football history when teams wore, well, short shorts. The podcast takes 1954 as its starting point, when Umbro made their first England kit with shorter shorts, to 1992, when short shorts were all but finished as Umbro's baggy shorts for Tottenham's new kit, ahead of the '91 FA Cup Final, quickly caught on.

If the shorts weren't short, we just don't talk about it.

This week’s guest is English TV presenter Elton Welsby, ITV’s frontman on The Match, which showed the final four years of Football League Division One football before Sky and The Premier League changed TV coverage forever.

Discussed on this interview with Elton, who strikes me as what in football would be termed as a ‘bit of a character’, are his dual love of Football and Rugby League, his passion for Everton, his association with legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly during Elton’s formative years as a young journalist and also later at Radio City as his broadcasting career took off, reaching its peak in the ’88 to ’92 era during which he presented a World Cup, a European Championships and the biggest league title decider there’s ever been.