On Wednesday September 4th, 1867, the members of the Wednesday Cricket Club (so called because they played on Wednesdays) met at the Adelphi Hotel in Sheffield, Yorkshire and formed The Wednesday Football Club.
By the 1880s, The Wednesday had become the dominant local side and began playing other teams in competitions such as the FA cup. Overcoming the typical transitional speedbumps, The Wednesday became a fully professional club in 1887. Having their application denied by the newly formed Midlands based Football League, they became co-founders and the initial champions of the Football Alliance. The Football Alliance included, amongst others still playing, Nottingham Forest, Stoke, and Newton Heath. After the Football Alliance was dissolved, The Wednesday joined the First Division of the Football League and had moderate success, winning the FA Cup in 1896, defeating Wolverhampton 2-1. In 1899, The Wednesday moved into their current stadium, Hillsborough, a beautiful and iconic park that has hosted many important matches including Euro and World Cup games, as well as the site of one of the worst tragedies in sports history in 1989.
The first decade of the 2oth century was a good one for The Wednesday, winning back to back League titles in 02-03 and 03-04, as well as their second FA Cup in 1907. While the next few decades were not as fruitful, they had a period of great success in the 20s and 30s, winning the league back to back again in 1928-29 and 29-30, as well as the FA Cup in 1935. Also of note during this period was the official name change of the team to the Sheffield Wednesday Football Club in 1929. The name had been used informally as far back as the 1890s.
While the team was a yo-yo club in the 1950s, they had a resurgence in the 60s, finishing second in the top flight in 1960-61 to the famed Double side of Tottenham and losing the famed 1966 FA Cup final to Everton. The next decades saw the club plummet to their lowest depths, nearly being relegated to the 4th division in 1976. The one great moment that occurred during this time was the famed Boxing Day Massacre in 1979, when Wednesday and United set a third division record with over 49,000 spectators on hand to watch Wednesday’s 4-0 demolition of the Blades.
Under Howard Wilkinson, The Owls made it back to the top flight by 1984 where they would remain for all but one of the next 16 seasons. They finished 5th in 1986, but English Clubs were under ban from European competition at the time. After Wilkinson left, former Man U leader Ron Atkinson took over, and while they were relegated in his first season, they came back up the following season, which included Wednesday becoming the last club not in the first division to win a cup, winning the 1991 League cup 1-0 over Manchester United. The resurgence continued as Wednesday finished third in 92 and finished runner up in both the League Cup and FA Cup in 1993, with both losses to Arsenal. This was when I started following the team and it’s kind of been downhill since then.
The late 1990s saw financial and football mismanagement leading to the team’s relegation on the final day of 2000 and the club continued to drop all the way to the third division. The one highlight of this period saw 42,000 Owls fans travel to Caridff to watch Wednesday defeat Hartlepool in the 2006 playoffs. Wednesday quickly dropped back down from the Championship and was mired in League One, twice staving off winding up orders before being purchased by Milan Madaric in 2010. The clubs fortunes began to improve and they returned to the Championship by going undefeated in their last 13 games on 2012 to pass United on the way to a second place finish. Mandaric soon sold the team to Thai businessman Dejphon Chansisri, who began to invest in the club, witnessing a loss to Hull in the playoff final in 2015 and a 4th place finish in 2016.
Sheffield Wednesday are the 3rd oldest British Professional Club (behind Notts County and Stoke City) and have won 5 League titles, 3 FA Cups, and a League Cup. They are 14th in the all-time top flight table and only this year have been bumped out of the all-time Premier League table top 20, despite only playing 8 years.
Wednesday are a proud old British Football Club with a passionate and loyal fan base that rivals any in England. It’s an honor that this somehow became my club, and a pleasure to watch them play after 150 years. Here’s to greater success and a return to the top flight where they belong. Cheers.
