Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

Formation and the Football League (1879–1893)

In the 2000 edition of The Rough Guide to English Football, the history section on the Wolves page begins: "The very name Wolves thunders from the pages of English football history". As with several other clubs, Everton for example, Wolves had humble beginnings shaped by the twin influences of cricket and the church. The club was founded in 1877 as St. Luke's F.C. by John Baynton and John Brodie, two pupils of St Luke's Church School in Blakenhall, who had been presented with a football by their headmaster Harry Barcroft. The team played its first game on 13 January 1877 against a reserve side from Stafford Road, later merging with the football section of a local cricket club called Blakenhall Wanderers to form Wolverhampton Wanderers in August 1879. Having initially played on two strips of land in the town, they relocated to a more substantial venue on Dudley Road in 1881, before lifting their first trophy in 1884 when they won the Wrekin Cup, during a season in which they played their first FA Cup tie. Having become professional, the club were nominated to become one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888, in which they played in the first round of Football League fixtures ever staged, against Aston Villa on 8 September 1888. They ended the inaugural season in third place, as well as reaching their first FA Cup Final, losing 0–3 to the first "Double" winners, Preston North End. At the conclusion…

Wolverhampton Wanderers was a founder member of the Football League in 1888. The 2025–26 season is Wolves' 127th in the Football League system. Wolves have spent 120 of their 126 completed seasons to date within the top two tiers of English football. Wolves played in the third tier on four occasions, each occasion lasting just one season; three of these seasons ended with promotion back to the second tier as Champions, and one ended in relegation to the fourth tier. The club has played two seasons in England's fourth tier (in the 1980s).

In the all-time table since the league's inception in 1888, Wolves sit fourth in terms of points gathered in all divisions (as of the conclusion of the 2018–19 season), with only Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal having accumulated more points in total. Wolves were the first side to win all four divisions of the English professional game and have won every competition currently contested in English domestic football. League

First Division (level 1) Champions: 1953–54, 1957–58, 1958–59 Runners-up: 1937–38, 1938–39, 1949–50, 1954–55, 1959–60 Second Division / First Division / Championship (level 2) Champions: 1931–32, 1976–77, 2008–09, 2017–18 Runners-up: 1966–67, 1982–83 Play-off winners: 2003 Third Division North / Third Division / League One (level 3) Champions: 1923–24, 1988–89, 2013–14 Fourth Division (level 4) Champions: 1987–88 Cup

FA Cup Winners: 1892–93, 1907–08, 1948–49, 1959–60 Runners-up: 1888–89, 1895–96, 1920–21, 1938–39 Football League Cup Winners: 1973–74, 1979–80 FA Charity Shield Winners: 1949*, 1954*, 1959, 1960* (* shared) Associate Members' Cup Winners: 1987–88 Football League War Cup Winners: 1942 UEFA Cup Runners-up: 1971–72 Texaco Cup Winners: 1970–71