Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday, One of the oldest English Clubs

Sheffield Wednesday Football Team is an English professional association football club headquartered in Sheffield. After finishing 24th in the 2020–21 Championship, the team now plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1867 as an offshoot of The Wednesday Cricket Club (which was founded in 1820), and they were known as the Wednesday Football Club until 1929 when they switched to their current name.

Wednesday is the second-oldest professional association football team in England, and one of the oldest football clubs in the world of any code. The Cromwell Cup, only the second of its type, was won by the squad in 1868. They were one of the founding members of the Football Alliance and its inaugural winners in 1889, before joining The Football League three years later.

They joined the Premier League as founding members in 1992. The club has spent the majority of their league existence in the Premier League of England, however, they have not competed at that level since being relegated in 2000.

The Owls have four league titles, three FA Cups, one League Cup, and one FA Community Shield to their name. Wednesday has also competed in four UEFA cup tournaments, reaching the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup quarter-finals in 1963. As a tier 2 team, they beat Manchester United 1–0 in the Football League Cup Final in 1991. They are still the last team to win one of English football's major trophies while playing in the second tier as of 2019.

They used to play their games in Olive Grove and Bramall Lane, two stadiums in central Sheffield, in the nineteenth century. Hillsborough Stadium, a near-40,000-capacity stadium in the north-west Sheffield suburb of Owlerton, has hosted all of the club's home matches since 1899. Sheffield United is Wednesday's main adversary, with whom they play in the Steel City derby.

Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday, The Owls

The quick facts below will help you understand the club a little better and prepare you for the details.

Quick Facts

• Full Name:

   Sheffield Wednesday Football Club (SWFC)

• Nicknames:

   The Owls

• Date of Formation:

   4 September 1867

• Location:

   Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

• Age:

   154 years old

• Nationality:

   English

• Home Stadium:

   Hillsborough Stadium

• Home Colors: 

  White and Blue

• Owner: 

  Dejphon Chansiri

• Manager:

   Darren Moore

• Market Value: 

  €27.20m

• League:

   League One

• Current Table Position:

   7 out of 20

Sheffield Wednesday Records

The largest win for Wednesday was a 12–0 win over Halliwell in the first round of the FA Cup on January 18, 1891, one of the Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday.

Wednesday's biggest league win came on December 13, 1930, when they defeated Birmingham City 9–1. Both of these victories came at home.

The biggest defeat was on October 5, 1912, when Wednesday lost 10–0 to

in a Division 1 encounter away from home.

The 1958–59 season saw the club score the most goals in a season with 106. The team scored 93 points in the 2011–12 season, which was their greatest total in the league.

On February 17, 1934, the FA Cup fifth round had the largest home attendance.

A total of 72,841 people attended the match against

, which ended in a 2–2 draw, another one of the Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday.

The squad, unfortunately, went on to lose the rematch 2–0. That season, Manchester City won the FA Cup

Goalkeeper Ron Springett, who won 33 caps for Sheffield Wednesday, was the club's most capped Englishman.

Springett was also one of Sheffield Wednesday players that held the record for the most capped player until Nigel Worthington broke it.

During his time at the club, Springett earned a total of 50 caps for Northern Ireland.

Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Kevin Pressman holds the record for the fastest sending off in British league football, having been sent off after only 13 seconds for handling a shot from

' Temuri Ketsbaia outside the area during the opening weekend of 2000.

Another one of

Sheffield Wednesday players

, David Hirst, hit the bar with a shot measured at 114 mph against

at Highbury in September 1996, the fastest shot ever recorded in the Premier League.

Sheffield Wednesday Managers

Dickinson is Wednesday's longest-serving manager, having been in charge for 29 years and helping to build the club throughout the first two decades of the twentieth century. Brown took over from Dickinson and remained as a Sheffield Wednesday manager for 13 years, winning the team's most recent top division league title in 1930.

Taylor took over during World war and stayed in charge until 1958, but despite Wednesday being in the top tier for the majority of his tenure, he failed to win a major trophy.

In 1980, Charlton promoted Wednesday from the Third Division, and in his final season (1982–83), he led them to the FA Cup semi-finals.

Wilkinson succeeded Charlton, the previous Sheffield Wednesday manager, in the summer of 1983 and stayed for more than five years before moving to

. Wednesday was promoted to the First Division after a 14-year absence in his first season.

In 1986, he led them to a fifth-place finish, but due to the prohibition on English teams competing in European competitions following the Heysel Disaster of 1985, Wednesday was unable to compete in the 1986–87 UEFA Cup.

After Ron Atkinson (who had just led them to Football League Cup glory and promotion to the First Division) left for Aston Villa in June 1991, Francis took over as the

Sheffield Wednesday manager

. In 1992, he led them to third place in the league and earned them a UEFA Cup place.

They were runners-up in the FA Cup and League Cup that year, finishing seventh in the inaugural

. In 1995, he was fired after Wednesday finished 13th for the first time in four years after achieving promotion.

Sheffield Wednesday Colors & Nicknames

In their early years, the club was known as The Blades, a nickname for any sporting team from Sheffield, which is famed for its cutlery and blades all over the world. Sheffield United, Wednesday's crosstown rivals, have kept that nickname.

Although it is often considered that the team's nickname changed to The Owls after the club moved to Owlerton in 1899, the name did not pick up until 1912, when one of Sheffield Wednesday players and stars George Robertson presented the club with an owl mascot.

A monkey mascot that had been established a few years earlier had not been very successful, one of the

Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday.

The club's home games have been played in blue and white shirts with vertical stripes since its inception. This has not always been the case, and there have been a few variants on the theme.

The Wednesday team is shown with plain dark shirts in a monochrome photograph from 1874 to 1875, whereas the 1871 "Rules of the Sheffield Football Association" described the Wednesday club colors as blue and white hoops.

Between 1887 and 1973, a quartered blue and white design was worn, as was a blue shirt with white sleeves. Throughout their history, Wednesday's socks have been mostly black, blue, or white.

The away kit of the club has changed several times over the years. Although the club has used a variety of colors for its change strip over the years, including yellow, black, silver, green, and orange, white has always been the second option for many teams, including Wednesday.

Sheffield Wednesday Crest & Mascots

The owl has been a recurring theme throughout the club since 1912, one of the Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday. The first club crest, introduced in 1956, was a shield depicting a traditionally drawn owl perched on a branch.

The White Rose of York was depicted beneath the branch, alluding to Yorkshire's home county, and the sheaves of Sheffield (Sheaf field) were depicted on either side of the owl's head.

Consilio et Animis, the club's Latin motto, was displayed beneath the shield. It translates to "By Wisdom and Courage" in English.

The club's crest was modified in 1970 to a minimalist version drawn by a local art student, and this emblem was retained by the club until 1995 when it was replaced by a design that was close to the previous crest.

Although the design of both had changed, it still contained a conventionally drawn owl perched on a branch. The sheaves were replaced by a stylized SWFC emblem, which had been used on club merchandise for several years before the new crest was introduced.

To make room for the words Sheffield Wednesday, the Yorkshire Rose was moved above the owl's head. Around the top of the design, the word Hillsborough was likewise curved.

On the new design, the club motto was missing. A new shield shape was used to surround the crest.

This crest was only in use for a few years, during which time numerous other colors were utilized, including a white crest with blue lines along either side and the detail colors inverted.

In 1999, the minimalist version was reintroduced, albeit within a crest, and in 2002, a copyright symbol was added, another one of the Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday.

Dejphon Chansiri, the club's new owner, redesigned the crest again in 2016, opting for a design that was similar to the 1956 badge.

Sheffield Wednesday has had various Owl-themed matchday mascots over the years. Ozzie the Owl was the first, and then two more Owls, Baz and Ollie, were added. Barney Owl, a similar-looking owl with more defined eyes to make it look nicer, replaced all three in 2006.

On January 17, 2009, Ozzie Owl was restored as Wednesday's main mascot for a home game against Charlton Athletic.

Ozzie and Barney Owl are the current mascots. Ollie Owl returned to the scene in 2012 when the team appointed him Mascot for the Owls' work with children in the community.

Sheffield Wednesday Home Stadiums

Wednesday used to play at Highfield but had to move multiple times before settling on a permanent home. Myrtle Road, Heeley, and Hunter's Bar were among the other locations.

Before Sheffield United made it their home ground, major matches were held at Sheaf House or Bramall Lane.

Sheffield Wednesday's first permanent home ground was Olive Grove, a location near Queen's Road that the Duke of Norfolk had initially leased.

On September 12, 1887, the first game at Olive Grove was a 4–4 draw with Blackburn Rovers. In 1899, the club was forced to relocate due to the extension of the adjacent railway.

Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield's Owlerton suburb has hosted Wednesday's home games since 1899.

One of the

Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday

is that the stadium was previously known as Owlerton Stadium, but when Owlerton became part of the Hillsborough parliamentary constituency in 1914, it was renamed Hillsborough Stadium.

Hillsborough has the 12th largest capacity in England, with 39,732 seats. Hillsborough's capacity was supposed to be increased to 44,825 by 2012 and 50,000 by 2016, among other upgrades, however, due to England's failed World Cup bid, this was no longer the case.

The stadium has held 27 FA Cup Semi-finals and the 1966 FIFA World Cup, as well as the 1996 European Championships (Euro 96).

 Another one of the Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday is that the Kop at Hillsborough was once the largest covered stand of any football stadium in Europe and was re-opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1986.

In the Hillsborough disaster, 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death when the terraces at the Leppings Lane end of the ground got overcrowded on 15 April 1989 during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

The failure of local police to appropriately handle the masses, according to the report, was the fundamental cause of the disaster.

Outside Hillsborough's South Stand, near the main entrance on Parkside Road, is a memorial to the disaster's victims.

After years of disagreement over the facts, six men in charge of safety were charged with criminal offenses including manslaughter and misconduct in public office in June 2017.

Sheffield Wednesday Fans & Supporters

The club's move to Owlerton in 1899 was a risky move because it moved the club many miles from the city center.

However, the club's faithful supporters continued to make the journey, and the club has remained one of the best supported in England ever since, one of the Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday. Official attendances at Football League games were not taken until the 1920s.

The club's highest average season attendance was 42,530 in 1952–53 when attendance across the country was at an all-time high.

The lowest average attendance in Owls history was in 1978–79 when only 10,643 fans came out to cheer on their team.

Wednesday was the fourth most popular team in the UK in 1992 and despite relegation from the Premier League in 2000, the club has continued to draw audiences of well over 20,000 since then and was the most popular club outside the top flight in 2006, one of the

Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday.

Wednesday drew approximately 39,000 fans to the Millennium Stadium for the 2005 playoff final.

Sheffield Wednesday brought nearly 38,000 fans to Wembley Stadium in 2016 for their play-off final loss to Hull City, selling far more seats than their opponents, many of whom boycotted the game.

In the last 60 years, the Owls have averaged 30000 fans at home. The FA Cup Final seasons of 1965–6 and 1966–7 totaled 30000 and 31000, respectively, plus 32000 when they finished second in the League Championship in 1960–61.

Just Another Wednesday, Out of the Blue, Spitting Feathers, Boddle, A View From The East Bank, Cheat!, and War of the Monster Trucks are just a few of Sheffield Wednesday's fanzines.

Owlstalk, OwlsOnline, and OwlsMad are three online message boards dedicated to discussions about the club.

Sheffield Wednesday Rivalry

, Wednesday's major adversary, is a city rival. Steel City derbies refer to matches between these two clubs, which are so termed because Sheffield is known for its steel industry.

United was founded in 1889 by the committee at Bramall Lane, who had lost their main source of revenue, Wednesday, two years prior due to a pitch rent dispute.

United adopted Wednesday's former nickname, the Blades, in addition to playing at Wednesday's former ground. The first derby match was played on December 15, 1890, at Olive Grove, with Wednesday winning 2–1.

On April 3, 1993, the FA Cup semi-final match took place at Wembley Stadium. Initially, it was announced that the match would be held at Elland Road, but both groups of supporters were disappointed.

Following a rethink, the Football Association opted to move the match to Wembley Stadium. One of the Top Facts about Sheffield Wednesday is that a total of 75,365 fans traveled to London to watch Wednesday defeat United 2–1 in extra time.

Wednesday supporters consider neighboring Yorkshire clubs Leeds United, Barnsley, Rotherham United, and Doncaster Rovers to be rivals, according to a survey conducted in 2019.

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