West Bromwich Albion Football Club are an English football club based in West Bromwich. The club's history dates back to its formation in 1878 as West Bromwich Strollers by workers from Salter's Spring Works in West Bromwich. The team was renamed West Bromwich Albion in 1880. Albion have played their home games at The Hawthorns since 1900.
Albion were one of the founding members of The Football League in 1888 and have spent the majority of their league history in English football's top division. They have won the league title once, in 1919–20, and been runners-up twice. The club has had more success in the FA Cup, with five wins. The first came in 1888, the year the league was founded, and the most recent in 1968, their last major trophy. They also won the Football League Cup at the first attempt in 1966. The club's longest consecutive period in the top division was between 1949 and 1973, and from 1986 to 2002 they spent their longest ever spell out of the top division. There has been something of a revival in recent years, with thirteen seasons spent in the Premier League since 2002.
1878–1902 The club was founded in 1878 as West Bromwich Strollers in West Bromwich, then in Staffordshire but now part of the West Midlands administrative county. Older sources quote the year of formation as 1879, as evidence of the first Strollers match in 1878 came to light only as recently as 1993.McOwan pp7–10. The team played their first match on 23 November 1878, drawing 0–0 in a 12-a-side game against workers from Hudson's, a local soap factory.Matthews (2007) p10. Most of the Strollers players worked at George Salter's Spring Works; many were keen cricketers and were looking for a sport to play during the winter months. The 'Strollers' name came about because there were no footballs on sale in West Bromwich, so a walk to nearby Wednesbury was necessary in order to buy one. They were renamed West Bromwich Albion in either 1879 or 1880, becoming the first team to adopt the Albion suffix. Albion was a district of West Bromwich where some of the players lived or worked, close to what is today Greets Green.
For the first two seasons of their existence, Albion played local sides on parks pitches throughout West Bromwich, Smethwick and Wednesbury, occasionally travelling as far afield as Stourbridge to get a game. The real breakthrough came at the start of the 1881–82 season, when they decided to pay a subscription to join the Birmingham & District Football Association, thus becoming eligible for their first competition, the Birmingham Senior Cup. It was their run to the quarter-finals of that tournament – beating, as they did, established sides such as Elwells FC (from Wednesbury) and Calthorpe (Edgbaston) – that made their name in the Birmingham press. Suddenly, the local papers began to take notice of the club, and began reporting on their games.
By 1882 they had also joined the Staffordshire FA, and after another good run in the Birmingham Cup, they won the Staffordshire Cup – their first trophy – by beating Stoke 3–2 at the Victoria Ground. That was the catalyst for national success. At that time, every county had its own cup competition, and the various cup holders were welcome visitors all around the country; so it was that Albion began to arrange choice fixtures against the likes of Preston North End, Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, and Wrexham.
They also moved ground. They had spent a season in their own enclosure, The Birches, but the drainage there was poor and so the club rented Four Acres from their former rivals, West Bromwich FC, where they would remain for three years. The conditions of the lease allowed them to play home games on Saturdays and Mondays only, but not in the summer as the ground was used then by the Dartmouth Cricket Club.
They also entered the FA Cup for the first time in the 1883–84 season.McOwan pp13–14. In 1885 the club turned professional, and in 1886 reached the FA Cup final for the first time, losing 2–0 to Blackburn Rovers. In 1887 they reached the final again, but lost 2–0 to Aston Villa. In 1888 they went one better and won the trophy for the first time, beating strong favourites Preston North End 2–1 in the final.McOwan p20. Of all the clubs that went on to join the Football League, only Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa had also won the FA Cup previously, and were the two clubs that had beaten Albion in their first two finals.
In March 1888, William McGregor wrote to what he considered to be the top five English teams, including Albion, informing them of his intention to form an association of clubs that would play each other home and away each season. Thus when the Football League started later that year, Albion became one of the twelve founder members.McOwan pp19–21. Albion's first ever league match was played on 8 September 1888 against Stoke, which resulted in a 2–0 away win. Albion eventually finished in 6th place in the inaugural Football League table, and reached the FA Cup semi-final that season. Having finished one place higher the following season, in the 1890/91 season they slumped and finished bottom of the table, having to apply for re-election to the Football League while again reaching the FA Cup semi-final, losing 3–2 to the eventual winners Blackburn Rovers.
Albion's second FA Cup success came in 1892, beating Aston Villa 3–0. They met Villa again in the 1895 final, but lost 1–0. The team suffered relegation to Division Two in 1900–01, their first season at The Hawthorns, but were promoted as champions the following season,McOwan p30–32. when Chippy Simmons was the leading goalscorer in Division Two.
1902–1948
Albion secretary Frank Heaven resigned in May 1902, and was replaced by 19-year-old Fred Everiss, who remained in the post of secretary-manager for 46 years.McOwan p32. The team performed well on their return to Division One, topping the league for a large part of the season, but their title hopes were ended by a run of 11 games without a win—including eight straight defeats—and they finished seventh.Willmore p50. Disagreements in the boardroom in the summer of 1903 led to the resignation of three directors, including chairman Harry Keys. Albion won just seven league games in 1903–04, and were again relegated as the First Division's bottom club. This time there was no quick return as the club finished tenth in Division Two, three points clear of having to apply for re-election. The 1905–06 season saw a marked improvement, with a 16-match unbeaten run between October and January helping the team to a 4th-place finish.Matthews (2007) p16 & p208 In 1906–07, Fred Shinton finished as top scorer in Division Two, with 28 league goals.
They won the Division Two championship once more in 1910–11, and the following season reached another FA Cup Final, where they were defeated by Second Division Barnsley in a replay.McOwan pp36–37. The war-time diaspora of a promising young team did not stop individuals from playing football in charity matches, amateur teams and regional leagues. Albion won the Football League title in 1919–20 for the only time in their history following the end of the First World War, their totals of 104 goals and 60 points both breaking the previous league records.McOwan p42. Fred Morris was the league's top goalscorer, finding the net 37 times. The team finished as Division One runners-up in 1924–25, narrowly losing out to Huddersfield Town. The same season and then-record crowd of 64,612 turned out to see Albion take on arch-rivals Aston Villa in the cup. The success wasn't sustained however, and the club were relegated in 1926–27.McOwan p45. The following season, Jimmy Cookson scored 38 league goals to finish as Division Two's top scorer.
Albion scored a club record 105 league goals in 1929–30, but could only finish sixth in Division Two.Matthews (2007) p23. In 1930–31 they won promotion to Division One. Only the goal-scoring exploits of Dixie Dean of Everton deprived Albion of the Second Division championship. In the same season they also won the FA Cup, beating local rivals Birmingham 2–1 in the final.McOwan pp50–51. The "Double" of winning the FA Cup and promotion has not been achieved before or since.As of 2007. Matthews p23. Albion reached the final again in 1935, losing to Sheffield Wednesday.McOwan p53–54. In 1935–1936 prolific striker W. G. Richardson scored 39 league goals, still a club record. Albion reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1937, beating Arsenal 3–1 in the quarter-final in front of a record 64,815 fans. However, they lost 4–1 to Preston North End, although the Albion players were clearly affected by the death of chairman and former player Billy Bassett two days before the game.McOwan p55. The following season, 1937–38, Albion were relegated to Division Two. With the 1939–40 season only a few games old, the Second World War broke out and football was suspended. Once normal league competition was resumed in 1946 (the 1945–46 season had been organised on a regional basis) Albion remained in the Second Division.
1948–1973
The turning point arrived with the retirement of Fred Everiss in 1948. Unlike most other contemporary clubs, Albion had yet to implement the modern role of coach or manager. Everiss, who was the club's administrative secretary, delivered the pre-match talk; the board of directors, which had replaced the old Club Committee, selected the team. Kicking a football played no part in training, which was for fitness alone. Albion's first modern manager was Jack Smith, who led the team to promotion in 1948–49.McOwan p58. There followed the club's longest unbroken spell in the top flight of English football, a total of 24 years.
A talented new squad started to develop, marked by the arrival of Ronnie Allen in 1950, scoring against Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. on his home debut in front of a crowd of 60,945. However, the board were frustrated by the lack of trophies and Smith was dismissed in 1952. Radically, Smith was replaced by Juventus coach Jesse Carver who introduced football into training. Though Carver was soon to be seduced back to Italy by Lazio, (although domestic household pressures were a paramount factor) his eight months in charge were a defining moment for the club. His replacement, Vic Buckingham, recruited from the amateur leagues, inherited an intelligent, well-co-ordinated team, playing a flowing style of attacking football that he was to build upon.