The history of Fulham Football Club, an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London, dates back to the club's formation in 1879.
1879–1898: Amateur days Fulham started its existence in 1879 as St Andrew's Cricket & Football Club, founded by worshippers at St. Andrew's Church, Fulham on Star Road, West Kensington, which still stands today with a plaque commemorating the team's foundation. They won the West London Cup in 1887 and, having shortened the name to its present form in 1888, they then won the West London League in 1893 at the first attempt. The club's first ever kit was dark and light blue halved shirts with white shorts. Fulham started playing at their current ground Craven Cottage in 1896, their first game against now defunct rivals Minerva F.C.
1898–1907: Southern League Years League 1898-03 Southern League Division 2 1903-07 Southern League Division 1
The club gained professional status on 12 December 1898, in the same year that they were admitted into the Southern League's 2nd division. By this time, they wore a kit very similar to modern Arsenal colours in this period, which was worn during the 1896–97 season.Historical Football Kits - Fulham Taken from Fulham FC - The Official 125 Year Illustrated History (Dennis Turner, 2004). In 1902–03, they won promotion from this division, entering the Southern League 1st Division. The club's first white club kit came in 1903, and ever since then the club has been playing in white shirts and black shorts, with socks going through various evolutions of black and/or white, but are now normally white-only.Historical Football Kits - Fulham Taken from Fulham FC - The Official 125 Year Illustrated History (Dennis Turner, 2004) amongst other sources. The club won the Southern League twice, in 1905–06 and 1906–07. (Link)
1907–1949: Into the Football League 1907–28 Football League Div. 2 (Level 2) 1928–32 Football League Div. 3S (Level 3) 1932–49 Football League Div. 2 (Level 2)
Fulham gained admission to the national Football League after the second of their Southern League triumphs. The club's first ever league game, playing in the 2nd Division's 1907-8 season, saw them losing 1–0 at home to Hull City on 3 September 1907. The first win came a few days later on 7 September 1907 at Derby County's Baseball Ground, by a score of 1–0. When they eventually found their feet in the division they impressed, ending up only three points short of promotion in fourth place. However, this was the best season they had in their 21-year stay in that division, and after only winning 13 out of 42 games in the 1927–28 season Fulham were relegated to the 3rd Division South, which was created in 1920.
A highlight of that first season was an 8–3 away win at Luton Town in an FA Cup game. The club actually managed to reach the semi-finals of that tournament, where they were humbled 6–0 by Newcastle United. This is still a record loss for an FA Cup semi-final game.See the FA Cup-specific page in the club history on the official website A couple of years later, the club won the London Challenge Cup in the 1909–10 season.
During this period, businessman and politician Henry Norris was the club chairman and curiously he had an indirect role in the foundation of Fulham's local rivals Chelsea. When he rejected an offer from businessman Gus Mears to move Fulham to land where the present-day Chelsea stadium Stamford Bridge is situated, Mears decided to create his own team to occupy the ground. In 1910, Norris started to combine his role at Fulham with the chairmanship of Arsenal.
After finishing fifth, seventh and ninth (out of 22 teams) in their first three seasons in the 3rd Division South, Fulham won the division in the 1931–32 season. In doing so, they beat Torquay United 10–2, won 24 out of 42 games and scored 111 goals, thus being promoted back to the Second Division. The next season, they missed out on a second consecutive promotion, finishing third behind Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City. A mixed bag of league performances followed, although the club also reached another FA Cup semi-final during the 1935–36 season. On 8 October 1938, Craven Cottage saw its all-time highest attendance at a match against Millwall, with a crowd of 49,335 watching the game.
League and cup football were severely disrupted by the outbreak of World War II in 1939, with the Football League split into regional divisions temporarily, with a national Football League War Cup and a London War Cup up for grabs. Post-war, a full league programme was only restored for 1946–47. In the third season of what is now considered the modern era of football, Fulham finished top of the Second Division, with a win–loss–draw record of 24–9–9 (identical to that which won them the 3rd Division South 17 years previously).
1949–1970: Reaching the top flight Promotion to the top flight of English football saw the club perform poorly, finishing 17th in their first year and 18th in their second. In only their third season of First Division football, Fulham finished rock bottom of the 22-team league in the 1951–52 season, winning only 8 of 42 games. On 20 May 1951, Fulham played one of their first ever games in North America in an exhibition match against Celtic at Delorimier Stadium in Montreal in front of 29,000 spectators.
1949–52 Football League Div. 1 (Level 1) 1952–59 Football League Div. 2 (Level 2) 1959–68 Football League Div. 1 (Level 1) 1968-69 Football League Div. 2 (Level 2)
A few seasons of mediocrity in the 2nd Division followed, but then the club reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1958 and used this momentum to win promotion back to the 1st Division in the following season, having finished second to Sheffield Wednesday. Also joining Fulham in 1958 was Graham Leggat, who went on to score 134 goals in 277 appearances, making him the club's fifth all-time top scorer. In the 1959–60 season, they achieved tenth position in the 1st Division, which until finishing ninth in the 2003–04 FA Premier League was their highest ever league position. This accompanied another appearance in the last four of the FA Cup in 1962.
By this time the club were regularly playing in front of 30,000 plus crowds at Craven Cottage,According to the club history at the official website despite struggling in the League. The club experienced several close escapes from relegation none more spectacular than in 1965–66. On the morning of 26 February 1966, Fulham had just 15 points from 29 matches. The last 13 games saw Fulham win nine and draw two to reach safety. Eventually the club suffered relegation in the 1967–68 season, having won just 10 out of their 42 games. Even that, however, was not as catastrophic as the calamity of next season. Winning only 7 in 42, the club were again relegated to the 3rd Division. (Note that this is not the same as the 3rd Division South, as the regional 3rd Divisions had been removed with the 1959 creation of the 4th Division).
It is impossible to talk about Fulham's history without mentioning probably the single most influential character in Fulham's history, Johnny Haynes.This is of course somewhat subjective, but he is the first player mentioned in the Great names section of the club's history on the official website. He is also the only ex-player to have a stand at Craven Cottage named after him "Mr. Fulham" or "The Maestro", as he later came to be known, signed for the Cottagers as a schoolboy in 1950, making his first team debut on Boxing Day 1952 against Southampton at Craven Cottage. Haynes played for another 18 years, making 657 appearances (along with many other club records too), his last appearance for Fulham coming on 17 January 1970. He is often considered as the greatest player in Fulham history,He is the first player listed in the great names section of the club's history on the official website, and was voted as Fulham's number one all-time 'Cult Hero' in a BBC poll and never played for another team in Britain.He played for Durban City after leaving Fulham according to He gained 56 caps for England (22 as captain),According to his profile at the FA. with many being earned while playing for Fulham in the Second Division. Haynes was injured in a car accident in Blackpool in 1962, but by his own admissions never regained the fitness or form to play for England again, missing out on England's victory in the 1966 FIFA World Cup, which he would have stood a chance of being selected for.According to an interview with him from The Stevenage Road Stand was renamed in his honour after his death in a car crash in 2005.
1970–1994: Bouncing between the second and third tiers
The aforementioned 3rd Division hiatus lasted only two seasons though, they were then promoted back to the Second Division as runners-up in 1970–71. This spell also saw Fulham invited to the not particularly prestigious Anglo-Italian Cup, which saw the club draw four out of four games in 1973. Thus started off a period of high-profile signings for the club under Alec Stock in the mid-1970s, including Alan Mullery and Bobby Moore. The reward of this was their only ever FA Cup final in 1975, having won their first semi-final in five attempts. The club then lost to West Ham United in the final. This gained the club qualification to another low-key European tournament, the Anglo-Scottish Cup, where they made the final, losing to Middlesbrough.
That run in the FA Cup saw the setting of an improbable record, that of the most games needed to reach the final, Fulham playing 11 games including replays. In the buildup to the 12th game, the Wembley final, Tony Rees and the Cottagers released a single, "Viva el Fulham" (based on Manolo Escobar's "Y viva España") which is still played (and occasionally chanted) at Fulham games. It reached number 46 in the Pop Charts in 1975.
1969–71 Football League Div. 3 (Level 3) 1971–80 Football League Div. 2 (Level 2) 1980–82 Football League Div. 3 (Level 3) 1982–86 Football League Div. 2 (Level 2) 1986–94 Football League Div. 3/2 (Level 3)
George Best played 47 times for the club in the 1976–77 season. Rodney Marsh, who having grown up with Fulham in the 1960s went on to play 1st Division football and play for England, rejoined the club in the same season, playing only 16 games. This capped one of the most successful eras in Fulham history.
The hangover from this meant the club were relegated again after winning only 11 in 42 in the 1979–80 season, followed by Bobby Campbell's sacking in October 1980, replaced by Malcolm Macdonald. With a strong squad during his 1980–1984 period in charge (with players such as Ray Houghton, Tony Gale, Paul Parker, Gerry Peyton and Ray Lewington), they won promotion again in 1981–82 back to Division 2. In 1980, Fulham founded the rugby league club that is now Harlequins RL, designed to be an extra stream of income for the football club. Then called Fulham Rugby League, they played at Craven Cottage until moving away from the parent club in 1984.
Fulham narrowly missed out on back-to-back promotions to the First Division, losing 1–0 to Derby County away on the last day of the 1982–83 season – although the match was abandoned after 88 minutes due to a pitch invasion. The side which had shown so much promise was gradually sold off and broken up as the club had debts to pay off, so it was little surprise when the club were relegated again to the Third Division in 1986. The club nearly went out of business in 1987 with the breakdown of an ill-advised merger attempt with Queens Park Rangers. The intervention of the Football League and the emergence of a consortium fronted by ex-player Jimmy Hill allowed the club to stay in business as a re-structured Fulham FC (1987) Ltd. In the same year, the club took part in the longest penalty decider recorded to that time – it needed 28 spot kicks to sort out a winner between them and Aldershot in a Freight Rover Trophy match.