Ever wonder what the first sponsored jersey worn in Croke Park was?

Jersey sponsors have been synonymous with counties most famous victories since being passed at Congress in 1991 and the curtain-raiser to the same year's National Football League final saw a little piece of history being made.

Cork and Galway faced off in the Vocational Schools final at Croke Park and the young Tribesmen donned jerseys with a Galway Oil patch stitched above its star on the left shoulder - just 13 hours after the rule came into effect on 5 May.

The feature game that day between Dublin and Kildare is credited as being the first to feature sponsored jerseys being worn at Croker but it seems that Galway Vocational Schools beat them to the history books.

The Galway logo was exactly as it was meant to be displayed under the new rules - small and not across the centre of the jersey. Dublin and Kildare both wore large logos across their chests but did not face any sanction as the rule was not yet written in the rule book. In the end, the larger logo was allowed. 

Ray O'Dowd was a member of the side which lost out to Cork that day and got in touch with hogandstand.com to clarify the fact:

"The guidelines issued stated amongst other things the allowable logo size and location on the jersey," he said.

"Both the Dublin and Kildare jerseys had logs which extended right across the chest which was against the guidelines. However no sanctions were necessary as these guidelines had to be fully written into the rule book later in the month.

"The Galway jerseys on the other hand, in the match before, were within the guidelines on the proper logo dimensions and location on the jersey.

"I believe we may therefore be the first team to have 'proper' sponsored jerseys with a sponsors logo." 

The GAA rules as explained in 1991

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