Blackburn Rovers (Blues and Whites) Football Club History

November 5, 1875 - the idea of forming the football club was belonged to John Lewis and Arthur Constantine. At the meeting in the St. Leger Hotel on King William Street they decided to form the Blackburn Rovers club. Walter Duckworth became the club's first secretary and Lewis was its first treasurer. In the very beginning the club had no their own ground and finance was also a problem. The only income came from players subscriptions. The early playing style became known as the Corinthian style. This method relied more on force than sophisticated ball skills.

December 11, 1875 - in Church, Lancashire took place the first match of Rovers. The result of the game was 1-1.

1876 - 1877 - the first ground of Blackburn Rovers located at Oozehead, on the west side of town facing Preston New Road. It looked like a meadow with a a cow pit in the middle. That's why the team moved to the Pleasington Cricket Ground.

January, 1878 - the club rented Alexandra Meadows. At a new place they won a match again Partick Thistle. The score was 2-1. Two goals belonged to Richard Birtwistle.

September 28, 1878 - Blackburn Rovers joined the Lancashire Football Association.

November 1, 1879 - for the first time Blackburn played in the F.A. Cup. From the beginning the club beat the Tyne Association Football Club 5-1, but then they were defeated by Nottingham Forest 6-0.

November 27, 1880 - took place a Lancashire Cup match between Rovers and Darwen. Due to the bad behavior of the players and fans the game was stopped by the referee at half-time. The victory gained Blackburn.

1881 - the situation with Darwen became worse after transferring a Darwen's player (Fergie Suter).

1881 - 1882 - the club received a new ground at Leamington Street.

March 25, 1882 - Blackburn Rovers was the first provincial team to reach the final of the F.A. Cup. Unfortunately, they were defeated by the Old Etonians with a score 1-0.

1882 -1883 - the club lost 0-1 to Darwen.

March 29, 1884 - The first F.A. Cup victory. The Rovers got the trophy beating the Scottish team Queen's Park F.C. by 2-0 at the Kennington Oval.

1885 - the club repeated their victory beating West Bromwich Albion with the lucky score 2-0. Blackburn Rovers was presented with a s silver shield and given the unique privilege of displaying the club crest on its corner flags for the triple F.A. Cup victory.

December 6, 1886 - the team lost 2-0 to Renton at the Leamington Street ground.

1887 - 1888 - Rovers lost their power in spite of reaching the semi-finals.

March 2, 1888 - Whites received a letter from William McGregor, who suggested to organize a series of home and away matches.

March 22, 1888 - Rovers became a part of the Football League. At the end of the season they finished fourth, but the following year Rovers finished third, scoring 78 goals in 22 games.

September 15, 1888 - took place the first league game that prominent for the 10 goals in a battle with Accrington. Rovers wanted to stronger the team that's why they had signed several new players.

March 29, 1890 - Blackburn Rovers once again reached the final. They beat Sheffield Wednesday team 6-1 at the Kennington Oval.

1890 - the club moved to Ewood Park

September 13, 1890 - was played the first game at a new place against Accrington, with a 0-0 draw result.

1890 - 1891 - Whites won the F.A. Cup, beating Notts Country F.C. with a 3-1 score. Rovers became the new Cup kings, because they had captured the trophy five times in eight years.

1892 - 1893, 1893 - 1894 -these seasons weren't very successive for the club: failure in the FA Cup with semi-final defeats.

1896 - 1897 - Blues fell within 14th place in the league.

1897 - 1898 - this season wasn't a hitch for the team. They finished only on the 15th place and were involved in Test matches to determine their future status. The club played against Burnley, Newcastle United and Stoke City. Three defeats seemed to result in inevitable relegation. Fortunately Burnley suggested that the Division should be increased from 16 to 18 teams and Rovers wasn't relegated.

1898 - 1899 - Rovers raised to the 6th place.

1900 - 1901 - the team finished 9th and the next season on the 4th place.

1902 - 1903 - the club faced with the problem of relegation again. But Blackburn put together a run of good form in their final five games, taking seven points from a possible ten to save themselves.

1905 - Ewood Park was renovated: the Darwen End was covered at a cost of £1680.

1907 - the new 395-foot long Nuttall Stand was opened. In a period of ten years £23,000 had been spent on ground improvements.

1908 -1909 - Rovers ended the season on the 4th place due to the transformation: new players Jimmy Ashcroft, George Chapman were recruited to the team.

1909 -1910 - Whites raised to third place.

1912, 1914 - Rovers became league champions.

1922 - Jack Carr appointed manager.

1925 - the team was defeated 1-3 by Cardiff City at Meadow Lane.

1928 - the club won the F.A Cup.

April 2, 1938 - Bob Crompton became a team manager. He signed new players: Hardy from Aston Villa, Jack Weddle from Portsmouth, Billy Rogers from Preston and Nobby Clarke.

1938 - 1939 - Rovers became champions of the Second Division in the final season before the war.

1944 - Eddie Hapgood came to the post of manager.

1947 - Will Scot took over a post of manager. Blackburn Rovers were relegated in this season and remained in the second division for the following ten years.

1950 - 1951 the club improved to sixth place in the league.

1953 - Johnny Carey was appointed manager.

1955 -1956, 1956 - 1957 - the team finished only fourth. Rovers was enriched by new players such as: Matt Woods and Ally McLeod.

1958 - the club got a promotion.

1960 - Blue and Whites reached the FA Cup final but lost 3-0 to Wolverhampton. This match was memorable for playing most of the game with only 10 men on the field. Full back Dave Whelan broke his leg.

1965 - 1966 - this season wasn't successful for the team. They were relegated to the Second Division lost several players, such as: Mike England, John Byrom and Fred Else.

1967 - 1968, 1969 - 1970 - both these seasons Rovers finished eights.

1968 - 1969 - the club slid down to the 19th place. Johnny Carey became an administrative manager.

1969 - 1970 - Ken Knighton, Alan Hunter and Brian Hill were signed for total £100,000.

1970 - 1971 - a record fee of £60,000 was paid for Jimmy Kerr. Nevertheless the club descended to the Third Division.

1972 - was remarkable for a Rover's nineteen game unbeaten run.

1973 - 1974 - Ken Furphy left the club and was replaced by Gordon Lee.

1974 - Lee signed new players: Ken Beamish, Graham Hawkins and Graham Oates.

1975 - this year brought the Third Division title.

1977 - 1978 - improvement and promotion. Jim Iley took over a post of manager. Unfortunately his 172 days of reign reduced to poor results, disappointed fans and disgruntled players.

1980 - the 2-1 victory at Grimsby proceeded to win thirteen of their next fourteen games. Rovers became a runners-up in the Third Division. Eventually they reached the Second Division but lost to Crystal Palace.

1990 - 1991 - the team finished 19th in the Second Division.

1991 - 1992 - Kenny Dalglish became a new manager. He started from 5-2 victory over Plymouth Argyle. He signed such player as: Alan Wright and Colin Hendry. The club gained promotion but then Rovers lost six games in a row. It caused them to fall out of the play-off places, but on the final weekend of the season Rovers defeated Plymouth with a score 3-1. In the play-off semi-final Blackburn Rovers beat Derby County. The result of the game was 4-2. In such a way Blackburn reached the play-off final at Wembley where they beat Leicester City 1-0.

1992 - Blue and Whites paid a record fee of £3.5million for Alan Shearer.

1992 - 1993 - Graeme Le Saux, Stuart Ripley, Kevin Gallacher, David Batty, Tim Flowers were signed.

1993 - 1994 - the club finished this season as Premiership runners-up.

1994 - 1995 - Rovers became the FA Premier League champions.

1996 - 1997 - in spite of the previous victories the team finished in 14 place.

1997 - Roy Hodgson took over a post of manager.

1997 - 1998 - Rovers finished in sixth place.

1998 - Brian Kidd became a new manager. In 1999 he was dismissed and Tony Parks was brought in. The team showed poor results.

2000 - Graeme Souness was appointed as manager.

2000 - 2001 - the club became Division One runners-up. It was the return to the Premiership.

2003 - 2004 - the team finished in 15th place. Mark Hughes took over a post of manager.

2004 - 2005 - Rovers reached FA Cup semi-final and played against Arsenal. They finished in 15th place again. Hughes strengthened with such signings as Ryan Nelsen and Aaron Mokoena.

2005 - 2006 - Mark Hughes signed Wales international striker Craig Bellamy for £3.2 million from Newcastle United. Rovers defeated league champions Chelsea F.C. with a score 1-0. The club secured the 6th place in the league and a spot in the UEFA Cup for the 2006-07 season. Craig Bellamy scored 17 goals, 13 in the league in only 22 starts

August 25, 2006 - the team showed a good start in the UEFA Cup. They defeated Red Bull Salzburg 2-0 (a 4-2 aggregate win). Rovers faced with Wisla Krakow, FC Basel, Feyenoord Rotterdam, and AS Nancy but were beaten 3-2 by Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg. A 0-0 draw in the second leg saw them bow out of the competition.

January, 2006 - David Dunn, Stephen Warnock, Christopher Samba and Bruno Berner were brought in. Dominic Matteo, Andy Taylor (loan), Joe Garner (loan), Lucas Neill and Jay McEveley left the team.

October 25, 2006 - the club was defeated 2-0 by Chelsea in the Third Round of Carling Cup. In the FA Cup Rovers defeated Everton, Luton, Arsenal (after replay) and Manchester City but in the final were beaten 2-1 by Chelsea. They finished 10th this season. For the 2007 - 2008 season the club signed Roque Santa Cruz, Maceo Rigters, Gunnar Nielsen.