Home > Derby County F.C.

1 History

The club was formed in 1884 as an offshoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club . They originally wanted to name themselves directly after the cricket club as Derbyshire County FC, but objections from the local football association (who thought the name was too long) led them to choose Derby County FC. They initially played at the Racecourse Ground .

The Rams, as Derby County are known, were founder members of The Football League when it was launched in 1888. In 1891, they absorbed another Derby club, Derby Midland F.C., who had been members of the Midland League . In 1895 the club moved to a new stadium, The Baseball Ground (so called because it was previously used for baseballBusch Stadium in Saint Louis, Missouri. Baseball is a team sport in which a small hand-sized ball is thrown and hit with a bat. Scoring involves running and touching markers on the ground called bases, hence the name. The ball itself is also called a base, it became their home for the next 102 years), and adopted their traditional colours of black and white.

In 1898Events January 1 New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. January 13 Emile Zola's J'accus, Derby appeared in their first FA CupThe Football Association Challenge Cup commonly known as the FA Cup is the main "knockout" cup competition in English football, run by and named after The Football Association. The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world. As such its presti final, but lost. They were losing finalists again in 1899Events January events January 1 End of Spanish rule in Cuba. January 1 Queens and Staten Island merge with New York City. January 3 The first known use of the word " automobile", in an editorial in the New York Times''. January 6 Lord Curzon becomes a vic and 19031903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasn't had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. Events January 1 Edward VII of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Emperor of India. Derby's luck didn't get any better and they were relegated to the Football League's Second DivisionUntil the 2004-2005 season, the Football League Second Division was the second-highest division of The Football League and the third-highest division in the overall English football league system. Before that it was the second division overall, but that e for the first time in 1907Events January events January 6 Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome Casa dei Bambini in San Lorenzo). January 14 An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than a 1,000 January 23 Charles Curtis, but they regained their First Division place in 1911.

In 1914 they were relegated again, but instantly won the Second Division to get promoted (though World War I meant that they had to wait until 1919 to play First Division football again). After just two seasons, they were relegated yet again in 1921.

However, more successful times lay ahead, instigated by Derby's promotion in 1926. Despite not winning anything, the club became a formidable force, with constantly high finishes, from the late 1920s and all the way through the 1939-1940 season , which was abandoned due to World War II.

The FA Cup restarted in the 1945-1946 season . Derby got to the final again, but this time managed to go all the way and win by beating Charlton Athletic 4-1 after extra time. (Derby's previous lack of success in the FA Cup — they also regularly lost at the semi-final stage — gave rise to a superstition that the club was subject to a gypsy curse, supposedly because of gypsy anger that the Baseball Ground was built on a gypsy camping ground. Prior to the 1946 final, Derby County players went so far as to ask the gypsies to lift the curse.)

The Football League restarted the following season and, despite the Cup win, Derby could not reproduce their pre-War form and were eventually relegated in 1953. Things went from bad to worse and in 1955 they were relegated to the Third Division (North) for the first time in their history. The Third tier proved easy for Derby, though: they finished second at the first attempt and then bettered it by finishing first (and gaining promotion) the following season.

In 1967, the now-legendary Brian Clough took over Derby County (in partnership with assistant manager Peter Taylor ) and led them to their greatest glories. They were promoted to the First Division in 1969 and won their first ever Championship in 1972. Though Derby did not retain their title the following season, they did get to the semi-finals of the European Cup, eventually losing to Juventus. Clough left under controversial circumstances and, after brief tenures at Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. and Leeds United F.C., Clough joined Nottingham Forest F.C. where he went on to win a First Division championship and two European Cups.

Nevertheless, Derby's League success was repeated in 1974-1975 season when they won the title again, this time under Dave Mackay . When Mackay left in 1976, Derby began to gradually decline until they were relegated in 1980.

Though they challenged well in their first season, Derby's stay in the Second Division was not a happy one and they were relegated to the now-national Third Division in 1984, their centenary year and just nine years after their last Championship.

After the relegation, the club appointed Arthur Cox to stop the rot - and stop it he did. After a two year stay in the Third Division (just like last time), they were promoted to the Second Division and won it at the first attempt, returning to the First Division in 1987.

The club was now under the control of controversial businessman Robert Maxwell, who was universally unpopular. With Maxwell dead from suspected suicide, the club was relegated back to the Second Division in 1991 (which became the First Division a year later when the First Division clubs broke away to form the FA Premier League).

The Premier League (or, more precisely, the money it brought) made it even more difficult for Derby to gain promotion to the Premier League, let alone stay there. However, this did not appear to trouble Jim Smith, who was appointed manager in 1995. Throwing his brief of 'a top-half finish' out the window, Smith guided the Rams to a second-place finish and, more importantly, the Premier League.

Derby's first three seasons in the Premier League were extremely successful: the club finished 12th, 9th and then 8th, very nearly qualifying for the UEFA Cup. In 1997, they also moved into the brand new Pride Park Stadium. However, things began to slide when acclaimed coach Steve McClaren was poached by Manchester United. In their next two seasons Derby finished 16th then 17th. Smith resigned at the beginning of the next season and assistant manager Colin Todd was promoted to Smith's old position. Todd presided over a terrible set of results and was sacked after just months in the job. John Gregory was appointed to save the Rams from relegation but failed and Derby were relegated in 2002.

Derby have stayed in the Football League First Division (now called the Football League Championship) ever since and are now managed by George Burley . Like many teams in their position, had to endure the loss of highly-paid stars and rebuild with a younger team, including players like Tom Huddlestone and Lee Grant .