The History of Blackpool Football Club dates back one hundred years to 1877 when Victoria Football Club was founded with Rev. James Wayman as president. The clubs first ground was on Manchester's Field, off Caunce Street, Blackpool.

The first decade saw the disbandment of the Victoria Club and the formation of Blackpool St Johns team which consisted mainly of the old boys of the school. In 1887 a dispute among the players led to a meeting at the Stanley Arms Hotel on the 26th of July under the chairmanship of Mr Samuel Bancroft where it was resolved : "That a club be formed to be known as Blackpool Football Club".

In 1888 the club became founder members of the Lancashire League and enjoyed 8 successful seasons culminating in the winning of the championship in 1893-94 after being pipped on goal average by Liverpool in the previous season.

In May 1896 Blackpool F.C. became a Limited Company with a capital of £2,000 in £1 shares and a few months later made a successful application to join the Football League. The circular supporting the application read : "If elected to the Second Division, we shall do our best to maintain a team that will hold an advanced position and do credit to the Blackpool Club and the Second Division". How well this promise was kept since well over half of the seasons to date have been spent in Division Two and, until the disastrous 1978/79 season, an "advanced position" was maintained. The club's Football League status was lost in 1899 and the club spent another season in the Lancashire League. The demise, however, was short-lived and the club was re-elected in 1900 and has maintained its League status up to the present time.

The first season saw Blackpool finish in eighth position in the Second Division.
For the next thirty years Blackpool remained in the Second Division with varying degrees of success. The seasons after the end of World War One saw the club striving for promotion to the First Division.

This period saw the emergence of George Mee who gained his place in the team in 1920 and remained in the side for five seasons, never missing a match and creating a record sequence of 195 consecutive appearances which stands to this day.

Other notable players of this era were outside right Jack Charles, who later became the club's trainer, as did Bert Tulloch, a great right full back. His partner at full back was Peter Fairhurst, who unfortunately died in hospital after heading a heavy, rain-soaked ball during a league match.

Also with the Club were Billy Benton, "Matty" Barrass, Jackie Meredith and Albert "Taffy" Jones, who later gained international recognition and was transferred to Blackburn Rovers for the then colossal fee of £6,000.

A period of centre forward supremacy followed for Blackpool. Harry Bedford was signed in 1921 and was leading goal-scorer for several seasons. He was also the leading Second Division goal-scorer for two seasons. Bedford was also selected to represent England on two occasions and on three occasions appeared in the Inter-League matches.
In one of these he scored four goals.

In 1927 Jimmy Hampson came to the club from Nelson. He was a brilliant centre forward who gained both International and Inter-League honours. In 1927-28 season he scored 31 goals in 32 games. This was the season he was "chaired" by the crowd at Bloomfield Road.

The following season he scored 40 goals, heading the list of scorers in the Second Division. Season 1929-30 saw him even more successful, with 45 goals - the highest total in the country. In season 1930-31 he scored 32 goals, and this was in the First Division.

Hampson cost the club only £2,000 and what a buy he was. He scored 247 goals in 360 games and, without doubt, was the player mainly responsible for Blackpool's promotion to the First Division.

Jimmy Hampson, out in a small boat on a fishing trip at Fleetwood, was drowned on the 10th January 1938. His body was never recovered. It was tragic end for a great player and an irreplaceable one.

Seasons 1923-24 and 1924-25 were a testing time for Blackpool, for they were beset by a series of misfortunes which at first appeared insurmountable, but which subsequently led to a great show of support from the townspeople and the advent of that great band of sportsmen - members of The Supporters' Club. These supporters have worked tirelessly during the past fifty-odd years and through their efforts many thousands of pounds have been raised for the Club.

It was at this same meeting that the Blackpool Supporters' Club came into being. It was one of the first Supporters' Clubs to be formed for a Football League Club and it continued to flourish until it's demise at the end of the 1995-96 season.

At the latter part of the 1924-25 season, the Board of Directors put in hand a scheme for ground improvement. This included the erection of a new stand, on the south side of the ground, to accommodate 2,000 people. Included in the new stand was to be a new Boardroom, offices, dressing-rooms, baths and a gymnasium.

Blackpool remained in the First Division for only three years and each of these proved a hard struggle for survival. Finally in the 1932-33 season, the inevitable happened and the Club was relegated to the Second Division.

Less than 48 hours before relegation, the Directors were served with a requisition, which they presumed was a vote of no confidence. A battle was then waged for seats on the Board and eventually six of the then Directors were unseated and an almost new Board of Directors formed.

The surviving Directors were Mr Sam Butterworth, who subsequently became the Club's Life President and Mr Harry Evans, who later became Chairman.

The year 1935 saw the appointment of Mr Joe Smith as manager. His approach was a "down to earth" one, his interest centred not on the background of his players but on their actual playing ability. It was Mr Smith who realised the ability of Bob Finan, a youngster who had come to Blackpool from a Scottish junior club. Finan scored thirty-four goals in his first season with the club.

The Golden Years

The start of the Second World War brought about the abandonment of League Football. Few would disagree that the take-over of the town by The RAF enhanced the fortunes of the Club though it must be said that, when war was declared on 3rd September, 1939, the "Seasiders" were sitting pretty at the top of Division One having won all three games played.

Blackpool became one of the chief training centres for the Royal Air Force during the war years, and many famous players were drafted to the town. They all played for the Blackpool club when war-time football was gradually introduced. In the 1941-42 season, Blackpool won the Northern League championship and the following year the War Cup, beating Sheffield Wednesday in a replay 2-1.

As will be seen, Stanley Matthews appeared in this side, although he was still on Stoke City's books. It was later that he joined Blackpool and displayed at Bloomfield Road all the skills and intricacies which were his and his alone.

With the end of the war and the return to peace-time soccer, Blackpool now found itself in a very fine position.

The Club has never won the first division championship, but they came very close in seasons 1956-57, when they finished fourth, 1950-51 when they were third, and in 1955-56 when they were runners-up to Manchester United.

Blackpool's record up to 1947 could only be regarded as mediocre, for since 1925 they never reached the last eight and it appeared that the Tangerines would never have the good fortune to battle through to a Cup Final and play at Wembley Stadium. However, in 1948, the "hoodoo" was broken and Blackpool succeeded in reaching the final.

Their opponents were Manchester United, who have repeatedly been Blackpool's "bogey" team, and on this occasion it also turned out to be the case and Blackpool were beaten. Beaten, but not discouraged. Now that they had felt the Wembley turf they were again determined to get there, and they did so three years later. Again, unfortunately, they were to be losing finalists, this time to Newcastle United.

Back again came the Blackpool team in 1953, in a final which came to be known as the "Matthews" final. The maestro had won every honour in the game except a Cup Winner's medal and this was possibly the last opportunity he would have of winning this coveted honour. The game proved to be a thriller, with their opponents - Bolton Wanderers- in the lead until Blackpool, inspired by Matthews, clinched the match by four goals to three. Matthews thus obtained his Cup Winners medal.

Matthews remained in Blackpool until October 1961 when he moved back to the Potteries to his old club- Stoke City. He was awarded the O.B.E. in 1957, and knighted in the New Year's Honours List.

During Blackpool's glorious era in the First Division a wealth of football talent appeared in the famous tangerine jerseys.

The Sixties

The team which won the F.A. Cup in 1953 and which had come so close to carrying off the Division One Championship had now broken up. The early part of the decade was spent rebuilding a team to consolidate the club's position in the top flight but this was not to prove easy. In 1960/61 the team narrowly avoided relegation, finishing in 20th position. We could finish no higher than 13th position in the next 5 seasons and were eventually relegated in 1966/67.

It was during this period that Jimmy Armfield completed most of his record 568 appearances for the club, at the same time appearing for England in 43 Internationals. He captained his country on 15 occasions, the only Blackpool player ever to captain an International team.

Alan Ball joined the club as a 17-year-old in 1962 and became the only Blackpool player to appear in a World Cup Final before being transferred to Everton for £112,000- a figure which was at the time a record fee for two British Clubs.

Much talent was unearthed through the Club's scouting system only to be lost, mostly for financial reasons. Emlyn Hughes and Tony Green were two players in this category who went on to gain international honours with their new clubs. Other players who represented the club during the decade were Ray Charnley, one of the club's most prolific goal scorers, Tommy Hutchinson, John McPhee, Tom White, Ray Parry and Alan Suddick. Alan joined 'Pool in 1966 from Newcastle United for what was then a Club record fee of £60,000.

The Recent Years

After three years in Division Two, Blackpool regained promotion so the 70's decade began on a bright note. Unfortunately the euphoria was short lived and, after a season during which only four victories were recorded, the Club was once again relegated. This was a prelude to the darkest period in the Club's history although performances in the following seasons were hardly a foretaste of the disaster which was to befall.

A successful start to the 1978/79 campaign was followed by a mid-season slump, but the turn of the year seemed to herald a change in fortune.

What followed in the closing few weeks of the 1978/79 season could not have been predicted by the most enlightened forecaster. It had been a hard winter with many postponements but Blackpool had, as usual, escaped the worst of the elements and had completed their fixtures before most other clubs.

The return of Bob Stokoe for a second term as manager failed to stem the slide and the team finished the 1979/80 season uncomfortably close to relegation. The appointment of Alan Ball as player/manager, heralded in many circles as the start of the Club's return to greatness, could not prevent the descent to Division Four. The reinstatement of Allan Brown proved no more successful and the team finished in mid-table in its first season in the lower division. Sam Ellis came to Bloomfield Road in 1982 and succeeded in getting Blackpool promoted within three years. But in 1989 he left and was replaced by Jimmy Mullen who lasted just one year.

The 1990/91 season was both exciting and disappointing, Graham Carr started the season as manager but left at the end of November leaving his assistant Bill Ayre in charge. The 1991/92 season ended firstly in disappointment with automatic promotion again being missed at the final hurdle.

The 1993/94 season ended in joy on the final day when a 4-1 home victory over Leyton Orient ensured that 'Pool were saved from relegation after a terrible mid-season slump. Billy Ayre ended his association with the Club in the summer and was eventually replaced by Sam Allardyce in readiness for the 1994/95 campaign.

The 1994/95 season ended in mid-table after being close to the play off zone with three quarters of the season gone but a disastrous spell ended any hope.

During the 1995/96 season Blackpool went on a number of unbeaten runs through out the season taking them to the top of the division and they looked a certainty for promotion. But a disastrous run towards the end of the season took Blackpool to need 6 points from their last 2 games.

Saturday May 26 2001 was to be the Seasiders biggest day in recent history as the Tangerine Army converged on the city of Cardiff for the Nationwide Div 3 Play-off final against Leyton Orient. It was Blackpool who would headed home knowing that they would be playing in the 2nd division in the 2001/2002 season.

Season 2001/02 has been one of consolidation for Pool in Division Two with another trip to Cardiff as Blackpoolwere crowned LDV Trophy Winners.

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