This Saturday marks the 141st anniversary of the formation of our football club, which is unique by being the only club formed by a trade union.
On Saturday 25th September the Sunderland and District Teachers’ Association, which was a trade union for teachers that would today be best known as the National Education Union, held a meeting at which Mr Heller, the national secretary of the National Union of Elementary Teachers, was the guest speaker. The local teachers’ association was affiliated to the national union.
For football fans though the most important factor was that at the meeting the teachers’ formed a football club.
Both the meeting and the forming of the football club were reported in The Sunderland Echo two days later on 27 September 1880. The article on football is very specific and states ‘Sunderland and District Teachers’ Football Club – the teachers of Sunderland and district have formed a football club….
On Monday 11 October 1880 the Sunderland Echo reported:
SUNDERLAND AND DISTRICT TEACHERS FOOTBALL CLUB “The first game of the season was played in the grounds of this club (Blue House Field, Hendon) on Saturday at 2.30pm. The teams were selected by the captain and the vice captain, and the game resulted in favour of the vice captain’s team by 5 goals to 0”. This is the first ever recorded match played by a team representing what we now know as Sunderland AFC.
The name of the football club was subsequently changed – possibly because the pool of players needed to be widened from just teachers - on 16 October 1880 to Sunderland AFC and has remained the same since.
As SAFC became ever more popular, members cards were issued and I have attached a copy of a 1884/5 members card (which comes direct from the club’s own publication in 1999) stating the club was established in 1880.
Also attached (cover image) is a front copy of the late Martin Westby’s book on 'England’s Oldest Football Clubs'. Martin undertook his own research into SAFC and also concluded it was formed in 1880.
You may also be aware that the great Charles Alcock, Sunderland born, published an FA Annual from 1882 onwards and in each edition, it states the club was formed in 1880. I also have copies of various pre and post war programmes featuring SAFC away in which the club’s formation date is listed as 1880.
For those wanting to know more about the founding of SAFC then get hold of a copy of Volume 1 of the Founding Fathers The Men Who Made Sunderland AFC by Paul Days.
Thank you for your time.
