Derby County (The Rams) History

• 1884 - the club began life as an off-shoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club. At first they wanted to name themselves Derbyshire County FC, but the local football association forced them to shorten the name. That's why the club chose Derby County FC. The other name of the team was Rams. The Rams played at the Racecourse Ground together with the cricket club. Derby County FC took part in the premier British football competition of the time: the FA Cup.
• 1888 - was formed the Football League. Derby was among the founder members. The first game was against Bolton. The Rams won it with a great score 6-3. Unfortunately, the club finished only on the tenth place.
• 1889 - 1890 - the club signed John Goodall, who was famous winning the double in league football's first season.
• 1891 - Derby County united with Derby Midland F.C.
• 1892 - Steve Bloomer joined the club. He was generally considered to be Derby County's best-ever player. Bloomer made his Derby debut, at the age of 18. His first goal was against the West Bromwich Albion. During career for the front-man Steve Bloomer scored 332 goals. He was the leading scorer in 1893/94 season.
• 1894 - 1895 - the Rams beat Notts County in a Test match, in such a way avoiding relegation to the newly-formed Division Two.
• 1895 - Derby moved to a new stadium. It was The Baseball Ground (so called because it was previously used for baseball ). The Baseball Ground became the home ground for the next 102 years, and adopted their traditional colours of black and white.
• 1895 - 1896 - the club reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, losing to Wolves 2-1 and finished second for the first time, four points behind Aston Villa.
• April, 1898 - the Rams reached their first FA Cup final at Crystal Palace, but unfortunately lost 3-1.
• April 15, 1899 - they lost to Sheffield United with a sore 4-1.
• April 18, 1903 - the club lost 6-0 to Bury.
• August, 1906 - Jimmy Methven became a manager. He played the last of his 511 games for the club that season, but couldn't prevent them losing their Division One status.
• 1907 - for a series of misfortunes Derby County FC were were relegated to the Football League's Second Division for the first time.
• 1910 - Steve Bloomer was back to the team. He showed his professional playing in a game against Lincoln City. Derby gained 5-0 victory over Lincoln City with two goals of Steve Bloomer.
• 1911 - Derby finished top of the table winning promotion back to Division One.
• 1914 - 1915 - The Rams were relegated but became the winners of the Second Division. Due to the First World War it was the last campaign in league football until 1919-1920.
• 1921 - the club was relegated again.
• 1925 - George Jobey was appointed manager.
• 1925 - 1926 - Derby became a runners-up of the Second Division.
• 1929 - 1930 - the team finished second in Division One.
• 1932 - 1933 - the club reached the FA Cup semi-final but they lost 3-2 to Manchester City.
• 1936 - 1937 - Derby finished second have defeated 2-0 Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup. That game visited a record crowd about 37,830.
• 1945 - 1946 - the Rams reached the final of the FA Cup and won by beating Charlton Athletic 4-1 after extra time.
• 1947 - 1948 - the team lost 3-1 to Manchester United at Hillsborough. The only goal scored Billy Steel.
• February, 1950 - a new record was set at the Baseball Ground. 38,063 visited the game against Northampton Town. This record became unbeaten for two decades.
• 1952 - unsuccessful period for Derby. They finished 17th and it was the lowest position for over quarter of a century.
• 1953 - they were relegated.
• 1955 - series of misfortunes continued. The club was relegated to the Third Division for the first time in their history.
• 1959 - 1960 - the Rams were promoted to the Second Division.
• September, 1966 - Derby broke their own transfer record paid £40,000 for Kevin Hector.
• 1967 - Brian Clough was appointed manager. He signed Dave Mackay.
• 1969 - the club reached the First Division.
• 1972 - the Rams won their first ever Football League Championship.
• 1974 - 1975 - Francis Lee and Bruce Rioch were signed. The club became the First Division champions again.
• 1980 - Derby relegated to the Second Division.
• 1984 - the club was relegated again. This time it was the Third Division. Arthur Cox became a manager.
• 1986 - 1987 - Arthur Cox guided the team to the victory in the Second Division. As the result the club was promoted to the First Division.
• 1991 - the Rams were relegated back to the Second Division. Lionel Pickering became a new chairman of the club.
• 1993 - 1994 - Roy McFarland was appointed manager. He was sacked in 1995 because of loss to Leicester City in play-off final in 1993–1994.
• 1995 - Jim Smith took over a post of manager. He sighed Igor Stimac.
• 1996 - the club got a promotion. They finished in 12th place in the Premiership final table.
• 1997 - 1998 - Pride Park Stadium became a new home ground of the club. The capacity of the stadium was 30, 000.
• 2000 - 2001 - in spite of a progress of previous two seasons the team was almost relegated.
• 2001 - Colin Todd was a new manager. The club was defeated by Bristol Rovers in a FA Cup Third Round game.
• 2002 - John Gregory was appointed manager. Unfortunately the club was relegated. It led to financial problems. The club needed to sell many key players.
• 2003 - John Gregory was dismissed and George Burley was brought in.
• 2003 - 2004 - the club finished 20th.
• 2004 - 2005 - they finished 4th in the Football League Championship.
• 2005 - 2006 - Phil Brown became a new manager, but only for this season.
• 2006 - at the end of the season Billy Davies was a new manager. Terry Westley, the academy coach, saved the club from relegation. Derby became a play-off Football League Championship winners. They gained a promotion to the Premier League. It was a real gap for the team for the last 5 years.