The Founding of Sunderland AFC
25 September 1880
It has long been a source of frustration that the formation date of Sunderland AFC (SAFC), the former 6 times English Topflight League Champions, could not be pinned down to an exact date. It was also wondered why the football club would form on an unknown date in October 1879 and yet not play any football matches for 13 months.
For the last 5 years a small band of football historians have been researching the founding of SAFC and can finally inform the footballing world that evidence supports the football clubs founding on 25 September 1880 at Rectory Park School, in the then town of Sunderland, before or following a meeting of the Sunderland & District Teachers Association and the leader of what would become the National Union of Teachers.
The evidence for 25 September 1880 is as follows:
- Submissions by SAFC to Charles Alcock, the then FA Secretary, annually from 1880 to 1908, that formed part of the contents of “The Football Annual”, a publication of the era; which from 1883 onwards stated the club was formed in 1880.
- Martin Westby in his “England’s Oldest Football Clubs” book, published in 2019 and which is now considered to be the ultimate authority on the subject. Martin states that when SAFC celebrated its centenary in October 1879, it did so 11 months too early. Martin confirms the SAFC formation date as September 1880;
- SAFC’s 1884/85 season ticket which states that the football club was established in 1880;
- Monday 27 September 1880 edition of the local Sunderland Daily Echo & Shipping Gazette, that announces the formation of (what would become SAFC on 16 October 1880); The Sunderland & District Teachers Association FC;
- The Northern Athlete newspaper in its 26 September 1883 article, on page 984, entitled “Football Clubs”. Section 5 for each named club gives the “date of formation”. For “Sunderland Association Football Club” section 5 states “September 1880”.
The above research has been endorsed by a Professor of History at a British University.
So where did October 1879 come from?
In the modern era the football club gave 17 October 1879 as the clubs’ formation date. Our 5 years of research reveals that.
- The date “17th” comes from an unpublished article produced by an un-named SAFC official in 1990;
- “October” comes from an article by “Referee” the forerunner of The Sunderland Echo’s “Argus” written on 27 March 1895; and the
- “(late) 1879” comes from a journalistic error in the 19 December 1887 edition of The Sunderland Echo, where the journalist was pressed for time when writing what is the de facto first history on the football club. Due to this constraint he did not refer to previous issues of his own newspaper (see 4 above).
So “17” “October” and “1879” is what can be termed a “Frankenstein date” as it has its origins in 3 articles, 103 years apart, with none of the 3 parts supported with evidence.
The main body of this above research has been published in a 2 volume, 700 plus pages, series of books entitled “Founding Fathers, The Men Who Made Sunderland AFC”, by Paul Days, which looks as the first 10 years of SAFC from their 1880 founding to their election into the Football League in 1890.
SAFC and its supporters can now look forward to celebrating the football clubs’ 150th anniversary on 25 September 2030.
Sunderland AFC are aware of our research.
Please contact Mark Metcalf (mcmetcalf@icloud.com) or Keith Graham (footy@thestatcat.co.uk) for any supporting statements or interviews regarding the Founding of Sunderland AFC on 25 September 1880.
Researchers:
- Days, Paul – football historian, and published author
- Graham, Keith – football historian & statistician
- Kitching, Gavin – football historian, published author and former Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Metcalf, Mark – football historian and published author
- Westby, Martin – football historian and published author
No comments:
Post a Comment