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ALBION, HOME OF THE australian BAGGY GREEN
IN THE BEGINNING
Alec Bart, a trained cap maker joined soon after and Albion began making all forms of caps, particularly as various vogue styles reached the country. They made a popular form of sailors’ gob cap, all styles of peak caps, baseball caps, ivy league caps, beanies with pompoms, toweling hats and caps, and Davy Crockett hats complete with imported raccoon skin tails. The name of the firm was changed around then (late 1950’s) to the Albion Hat and Cap Company Pty Ltd.
THE EVOLVEMENT
One of the best machinists in those times was Maria Radnick, and she was put to work on the famous baggy greens when that contract was won from the Australian Cricket Board in the 1960’s and continues to this day (see later notes). In 1975, a serious fire curtailed the company’s operations for a while although it was able to continue trading without any great success, with Albion going into receivership in 1977. George Pongrass and Igor Klein (Arcade Badge Embroidery Company Pty Ltd) saw the benefits in buying Albion, and a year later, a competitor of Arcade Badge, Marcus Karpin’s Sydney Badge and Art Embroidery Company, of which Albion had been a customer, amalgamated with Arcade Badge and so joined George’s stable.
1978 saw the birth of World Series Cricket and, as part of Kerry Packer’s new approach to the game, helmets were to be used as protection of batsmen. Tony Henson (Coonan & Denlay Pty Ltd) designed a helmet for that purpose and actively promoted a prototype within the Australian team. Rodney Marsh, Australia’s wicket-keeper saw this as an improvement over other helmets and took the untested prototype onto the field. The logo and trading name of Albion was altered to be “Albion C&D” soon after Mr. Pongrass retained the majority shareholding in each of Albion, Arcade Badge and Coonan & Denlay. Pongrass’ association with Klein, Henson and Karpin continued in their own areas of expertise. Soon enough there was further association with Australian cricket when a new product line was added in 1982 at the instigation of then Australian player and later captain, Greg Chappell. He designed a white fielders hat, and put his distinctive signature on the side. TODAY
Albion’s large range of hats and caps had largely cut back to the more popular lines only, except that a line of woollen hats was introduced for the Gowing Company. The main lines, namely the cricket caps, helmets and Greg Chappell hats, have enjoyed a wide international market since the late 1980’s. George Pongrass died on 20 June 1999. Tony retired around that time, and Igor and Marcus retired in March 2001. Albion continues today, with George’s son Robert now the owner and Brendan Denning as General Manager, with the Albion global headquarters still being based in Sydney.
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