Olympique Lillois was a French multi-sport club founded in 1902 in Lille. Its football section merged with SC Fives in September 1944 to form the club now known as Lille OSC (LOSC).[1] The club’s adopted colors were red and white, the colors of the city of Lille.[2]
Design and History
Olympique Lillois was a pioneer of French football, winning the first professional French championship in 1933.[3] The club’s nickname, “Les Dogues” (The Mastiffs), dates to 1920, when club officials brought a red and white mastiff plush toy to a Coupe de France match and adopted it permanently after the team won.[3]
After the 1944 merger, the new club’s first logo was red on a white background and referred exclusively to the Lille coat of arms, featuring the fleur de lys that recalls the marsh iris that originally surrounded the city of Lille.[4] The red color of Olympique Lillois was carried into the merged club’s identity, while blue was added in homage to SC Fives.[4]
Olympique Lillois’s red and white identity remains visible in the modern LOSC. The club’s current logo, created in 2012, features the words LOSC Lille, a fleur de lys, a mastiff and a flame, and sports the club’s three colors of white, blue and red.[5] For the 2024-25 season, marking the 80th anniversary of the merger, LOSC’s home jersey included the logos of both Olympique Lillois and SC Fives on the back collar.[6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The red and white colors of Olympique Lillois were those of the city of Lille.[2] The mastiff nickname and mascot, adopted in 1920, became a lasting symbol of the club and its successor.[3] The fleur de lys, which appeared on the first post-merger crest, references the marsh iris historically surrounding Lille.[4]
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