Early years
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 FC, 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 baseball, it became their home for the next
102 years), and adopted their traditional colours of black and
white.
In 1898, Derby appeared in their first FA Cup final, but lost.
They were losing finalists again in 1899 and 1903. Derby's luck
didn't get any better and they were relegated to the Football
League's Second Division for the first time in 1907, 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.
FA Cup triumph
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.
The Clough years
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
FC and Leeds United FC, Clough joined Nottingham Forest FC
where he went on to win a First Division championship and two
European Cups.
After Clough
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.
Recent times
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.
Famous players
Many consider the greatest Rams player to have been Steve
Bloomer, one of the most prolific scorers in the history of
English football who appeared for Derby from the late 19th
century to just before the First World War. Other notable
players include the FA Cup winning forward line of Peter
Doherty, Jackie Stamps and Raich Carter. In the modern era
players such as Roy McFarland, Archie Gemmil, Colin Todd, Kevin
Hector and Dave Mackay played in the championship winning sides.
More recently, England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, as well as
Fabrizio Ravanelli, Taribo West and Stefano Eranio and Igor
Stimac played for the Rams.
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