Birmingham City (The Blues) Football Club History

• 1875 – Small Heath Alliance were formed by a group of cricketers from Holy Church in Bordesley Green.
• 1885 – the Blues turned professional.
• 1888 – Small Heath Alliance became the first club to adopt limited liability. The club’s capital was £650! Their name a little bit changed. It became Small Heath F. C. Ltd.
• 1889 – 1890 – Small Heath F. C. played in the Football Alliance.
• 1892 – the club was invited to play in the Football League Second Division.
• 1892 – 1893 – the Blues became champions of Second Division. In the 22 games the team scored 90 goals.
• 1893 – 1894 – the club promoted to the First Division winning the match against Darwen.
• March, 1905 – the director T. D. Todd of an Extraordinary General Meeting made a suggestion to rename the club. Birmingham City Football Club became a new name.
• 1906 – Birmingham City F.C. moved to a new ground. It was a St Andrew’s stadium (capacity of 75,000). The first game at the new place was against the Middlesbrough attracting a crowd of 32,000. Unfortunately this match finished goalless. The first goal was kicked by Benny Green three days later. For this he was presented a piano.
• 1920 – 1921 - Birmingham won their second Division Two title. Also this year was prominent for the debut of the 19-year-old Joe Bradford. He won 12 Cups and scored 267 goals in 445 matches.
• 1922 – the Blues failed to enter the FA Cup. The reason was the mistake of secretary-manager Frank Richardsm, who forgot to send in the entry form.
• 1925 – 1926 – Real Madrid were beaten 3-0 in a friendly.
• 1938 – 1939 – 67,341 people went to St. Andrew to watch FA Cup tie against Everton. It was a record for the team according to the attendance of the matches.
• 1941 – 1945 – during the war St Andrew’s was bombed and this led to all home games being played at Villa Park.
• 1945 - Harry Storer became a manager.
• 1946 – the club won the Football League Championship and a FA Cup Semi-Final appearance.
• 1947 – 1948 – Birmingham City won the second Division title
• 1950 – Bob Brocklebank accepted a post of manager. He invited such players as Trevor Smith, Jeff Hall, Peter Murphy , Eddy Brown , Roy Warhurst and Alex Govan.
• November, 1954 – Arthur Turner became a new manager of the team. Under his guidance the Blues promoted from the Second Division to the First Division.
• May 15, 1956 – the Blues played their first match in the inaugural Inter-Cities Fairs Cup competition. In such a way they became the first English club side to take part in European competition.
• 1960 - the club reached the Fairs Cup Final, but lost to Barcelona 4-1. Gil Merrick appointed to the team.
• 1962 - 1963 – Birmingham City won the League cup competition, beating Aston Villa 3-1. Two goals scored Ken Leek and one Jimmy Bloomfiel.
• 1964 – 1965 – the club returned to the Second Division, in spite ten years in the top flight.
• 1965 – Clifford Coombs appointed to the position of chairman. He led the team to the semifinals of the League Cup in 1967 and the FA Cup in 1968. Also Coombs took Freddie Goodwin as a manager. In his tern Goodwin added such players as Roger Hynd in defense, Alan Campbell in midfield, Bob Hatton to play up front alongside the home-grown Bob Latchford and the 16-year-old Trevor Francis.
• 1970 – Trevor Francis made his first appearance for the Blues. He scored 133 goals in 328 appearances and became a Blues legend.
• 1971 – 1972 – the Blues won promotion to the First Division and reached the semifinal of the FA Cup.
• 1978 – 1982 - Jim Smith became a manager. He signed Archie Gemmill, Colin Todd, Frank Worthington and Jeff Wealands.
• 1979 - Blues were relegated to Division Two.
• 1980 – due to the great players the team was promoted back to Division One.
• 1989 - for the first time in their history Birmingham City were relegated to the Third Division.
• 1991 - the club won the Leyland Daf Cup Final, beating Tranmere with a score 3-2. It was the first time in 35 years they reached Wembley.
• 1992 - Birmingham City set a record promoting from Division Three to Division One.
• March, 1993 – David Sullivan, the Gold brothers and the actions of current manager Terry Cooper brought financial stability and prevented the club from the relegation.
• 1993 – 1994 – Barry Fry replaced Terry Cooper. The Football League accuse Fry and his staff
  of poaching and ordered to pay compensation to Southend United. Nevertheless they were promoted to the Second Division.
• 1995 – The club won the Auto Windscreens Shield at Wembley, beating Carlisle United with a golden goal scored by Paul Tait. Record crowd ( over 20,000 people) attended this match.
• June, 1996 – the club set a record selling Jose Dominguez to Sporting Lisbon for £1.5 million.
• 2001 – the Blues broke their transfer record again. They bought Geoff Horsfield from Fulham for £2.5 million.
• February, 2001 – Birmingham City reached League Cup final that was played at Cardiff ‘s Millennium Stadium. It was a game against Liverpool. Unfortunately, Liverpool won in this match.
• October 6, 2001 – the club lost to Manchester City with tremendous score 6-0.
• 2003 – the team was enriched with such players as Jamie Clapham, Stephen Clemence, Matthew Upson and most importantly French World Cup winner Christophe Dugarry.
• 2003 – 2004 - throughout the first three months of this season the club reached the top six. Loan signing from Chelsea Mikael Forssell ‘s 17 League goals helped them to a top half finish. But the second half of the season wasn’t such successful. The Blues won only one game from the final 11. The team coach Mark Bowen was replaced by Eric Black. Emile Heskey, Mario Melchiot were signed.
• 2005 – 2006 – Birmingham City were defeated 0–7 by Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-final and by the last game of the season were already relegated.
• January, 2007 – 5-1 FA Cup victory over Newcastle.
• 2007 – Carson Yeung bought the club. He made important signings: Olivier Kapo, Daniël de Ridder, Liam Ridgewell, Johan Djourou.