Luton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire. Founded in 1885, Luton Town were the first professional team in the south of England, fully professional by 1891. Luton were also one of the first southern Football League clubs, joining in 1897 before leaving again in 1900 due to financial instability. The club rejoined the League for the 1920–21 season. George Thompson became the club's first manager four years later, but only lasted eight months before leaving, and wasn't replaced until 1927. 1936–37 saw Luton promoted to the Second Division, and the first post-war seasons saw a strong Luton team begin to emerge. Record goalscorer Gordon Turner's arrival into the first team in 1950 helped Luton to promotion to the First Division for the first time in 1954–55, and the team remained there until relegation in the 1959–60 season. Luton also reached the 1959 FA Cup Final, where Turner's absence and the team's questionable preparation for the game meant that Luton lost 2–1 to Nottingham Forest. The club was subsequently relegated three times in six seasons, reaching the Fourth Division by 1965–66. However, players such as Malcolm Macdonald ensured that the club was then promoted twice in three years and was back in the Second Division by 1970.
Creation, professionalism and The Football League (1885–1900) Luton Town Football Club was formed on 11 April 1885. Before this there were many clubs in the town, the most prominent of which were Luton Wanderers and Luton Excelsior. A Wanderers player, George Deacon, came up with the idea of a "Town" club which would include all the best players in Luton. Wanderers secretary Herbert Spratley seized upon Deacon's idea and arranged a secret meeting on 13 January 1885 at the St Matthews school rooms in High Town. The Wanderers committee resolved to rename the club Luton Town – which was not well received by the wider community. The local newspapers referred to the club as "Luton Town (late Wanderers)". When George Deacon and John Charles Lomax then arranged a public meeting with the purpose of forming a "Luton Town Football Club", Spratley protested, saying there was already a Luton Town club; and the atmosphere was tense when the meeting convened in the town hall on 11 April 1885. The meeting, attended by most football lovers in the town, heard about Spratley's secret January meeting and voted down his objections. The motion to form a "Luton Town Football Club", put forward by G H Small and seconded by E H Lomax, was carried. A club committee was elected by ballot and the team colours were agreed to be pink and dark blue shirts and caps. The club's early years saw around 35 matches played between October and the following Easter. Most of these were friendlies arranged by the club's secretary, but Luton also competed in the FA Cup. The team had little success – it was not until the 1891–92 season that Luton reached the first round proper.
Luton's first achievement was perhaps to become the first professional club in the south of England, at a time when professionalism was mainly restricted to the north. Most players had to work on a Saturday morning and were often late for a game, which annoyed the crowd. It also meant shortened games in the dark winter months. On 15 December 1890, a salary of five shillings per week was offered to three players – Frank Whitby, Harry Whitby and Tom Read – to replace their lost earnings for Saturday morning, to ensure they arrived at the game on time. Harry Whitby and Thomas Read were the first to sign and thus became the first professional footballers in the south. Frank Whitby held out for a shilling a week more than his brother, but did not get it and eventually signed a month after his brother. In August 1891 it was decided to pay the whole team two shillings and sixpence per week, plus expenses. Woolwich Arsenal became the second professional club in southern England a few weeks later.
Luton Town were founder members of the Southern Football League in 1894–95 – the club's first competitive league match was on 6 October 1894 – a 4–3 home defeat to Millwall Athletic, who went on to win the inaugural championship as Luton finished as runners-up. The next season, 1895–96, saw Luton come second again as Millwall retained the championship. The sparse programme of league matches was still supplemented by numerous friendly matches at this time. After the two successive runners-up finishes, Luton applied to join the Football League's Second Division in 1896. When the club was not elected, Luton Town instead helped to form the United League. With only eight members, the United League was a short-lived failure and produced a damaging financial loss for the club – in the league's inaugural season, Luton finished second behind Millwall for the third consecutive year.
Council plans to build a school on the site of the Dallow Lane ground caused the club to relocate to Dunstable Road in 1897 and to become a limited company. The following summer, Luton Town applied once again to the Football League, and this time were elected to the Football League Second Division for the 1897–98 season. During the club's first Football League campaign, moderate success was enjoyed, and the team also won the United League. The second season in the League was considered a failure, as Luton finished 15th – the 17th-place finish in the third was considered so disastrous that the club did not even apply for re-election. With wages rising beyond the club's financial means, attendances falling and most of the club's turnover being spent on accommodation and transport to away matches in the north, it was decided that for the club to continue, it would be necessary to return to the Southern League.
Back to the Southern League (1900–1919)
The 1900–01 season was winger Bob Hawkes's first. In the 1900–01, 1901–02 and 1902–03 seasons Luton Town finished 10th, seventh and 11th respectively, finally making a profit for the first time since turning professional in 1903. The 1904–05 season saw Luton finish 17th – second from bottom – and to make matters worse, the club was told to leave the Dunstable Road ground at short notice. The club's directors quickly found a new site and the 1905–06 season kicked off at a new ground at Kenilworth Road. The side was re-elected unanimously to the Southern League, and Luton's first season at the club's new home was a success, seeing the team finish fourth, a feat that was repeated the following season. Meanwhile, Hawkes, in his second season as captain, was chosen to play for England, and in doing so became Luton's first international player.
For the 1907–08 season, a new set of forwards were signed but goals were still hard to come by. Despite possessing a strong half back line made up of Hawkes, Fred Hawkes and Fred White, the club slumped to 18th place and made a financial loss. The following year the team recovered to ninth place, but the financial situation worsened. The forwards finally found the goal in 1909–10, but too many goals were let in at the other end and the club finished 15th. The continuing financial problems caused the sale of forward pair John Smith and Thomas Quinn to Millwall. By 1910–11 gates were up, finances were being brought under control and the club challenged for the title before eventually finishing in ninth place. Optimism was in the air at the start of the 1911–12 season, but it was to finish in tragedy – popular full-back Sammy Wightman died from injuries sustained in a match against Brighton & Hove Albion, and a high wage bill, a spate of injuries and a lack of goals contributed to the club being relegated to the Southern League's Second Division.
The club planned to bounce straight back in the 1912–13 season, but even with a team of strong new players the team could only finish fifth. The formation of the Luton Town Supporters Club, who raised £60 during the season, helped the club to stem the financial losses. In 1914 the side finished second and were promoted back to the First Division, just as the First World War was about to begin. The 1914–15 season was the last complete season before competitive sport was mostly abandoned. Most war-time games were friendlies, but while Luton competed in the London Combination, Ernie Simms, who had been wounded during the war, achieved the feat of scoring 40 goals during 1916–17.
Rejoining The Football League (1919–1937)
In the first season following the conflict, 1919–20, not even return of Ernie Simms could stop Luton finishing 20th in the Southern League. Fortunately for Luton, no clubs were relegated that season; instead, Luton joined the new Football League Third Division, and replaced the blue, white and navy kit with a new colour scheme – white shirts, black shorts and black socks.
Feeling confident of promotion from the new division, Luton finished ninth in 1920–21 and enjoyed a good cup run. 17,754 fans saw the FA Cup defeat by Preston North End, setting a club attendance record in doing so. Simms scored 34 goals during the season to top-score for the club. Such was the quality of Luton's squad that three Luton players played in a single international at Windsor Park on 22 October 1922 – Louis Bookman and Allan Mathieson for Ireland, and Ernie Simms for England. Despite Luton's playing resources, the side disappointingly finished only fourth. The main stand was destroyed in a fire and rebuilt before the start of the 1922–23. As the club finished fifth, seventh and then 17th, hopes of quick promotion disappeared.
The 1925–26 season saw the appointment of Luton's first manager, George Thompson. The club finished eighth, while Thompson departed after just eight months in charge, "scalded by the experience". He was not replaced until 1927. The following season saw another eighth-place finish and following a shareholder revolt, there was a boardroom clear-out. Only the club's long-serving chairman, Harry Arnold, survived.
The boardroom changes created optimism in 1927–28 that was again dashed with a 13th-place finish. Meanwhile, a former player from the 1890s, John McCartney, was appointed manager. It was a high-scoring season that saw the club scoring 94, but conceding 87 – on Boxing Day, Luton led 5–1 only to lose 5–6. The following year saw McCartney guide his team to seventh with help from young Scotsman Andy Rennie, who switched from centre-half to centre-forward and scored 43 goals in 41 matches. McCartney suffered from persistent ill-health, and was replaced by assistant George Kay in December 1929. His team slumped to 13th place, but improved in 1930–31 to seventh.
Before the 1931–32, Kay left to manage Southampton and was replaced by Harold Wightman. Despite the presence of skilful players such as Frederick Kean, Charles Fraser and Rennie, the club was beset with injuries and finished sixth. The following season Luton finished 14th, perhaps distracted by a cup run which was finally ended by the eventual winners, Everton, in the sixth round. Charles Jeyes, who had served on the board for six years, became chairman in the 1933 off-season and secured the purchase of the club's Kenilworth Road ground. The Bobbers Stand was constructed that same year, and 18,641 spectators saw Luton beaten in the cup by Arsenal. Promotion still eluded Luton, and the club was also denied promotion in 1934–35. The club finished fourth, largely due to the sale of two vital players, Bill Brown and Sam Bell, and a terrible injury to Fraser.