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Savage Enthusiasm: A History of Football Fans
Savage Enthusiasm is a complete history of football fans, tracing the evolution of the fan from the sport’s earliest origins right up to the present day, exploring how football became the world’s most popular spectator sport, and why it became the undisputed game of the people.
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Part of the club: how casual spectators became football fanatics
In football’s early days matches were mostly watched by curious observers but, as crowds increased, “they won” became “we won”, and the fanatic was born.
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Johnny and Jimmy: the contrasting fortunes of two Victorian football stars
The contrasting fortunes of Johnny Goodall and Jimmy Trainer, close friends, and two of the earliest stars of the Victorian game.
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Much earnestness and savage enthusiasm
Our new football fan history book, Savage Enthusiasm, takes its title from a match report of the 1888 FA Cup Final. This edited extract describes how fans watched that match between West Bromwich Albion and Preston North End.
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How did we become football fans?
Being a football fan is both a privilege and a burden. When you’re winning, it’s the best thing on Earth, and when you’re not, it’s the end of the world. And the thing about being a football fan is, whichever way fortune swings, you’re stuck with the game and your team for life. We fans have come to accept the great hold football has on us. But how did this happen? How did we become so entirely wrapped up in the game? How did we become football fans?
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A Football Match as Seen From an Aeroplane, 1912
Claude Grahame-White was a leading pioneer during the early days of aviation. He became the first licensed British aeroplane pilot in 1910, competed in numerous air races and challenges, and became an international celebrity. He was also, it would seem, a football fan…
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Explosion at the Arsenal: how a 1907 accident “wiped out” the Gunners
At 3.26am on 11 February 1907, the district of Woolwich in south-east London was rocked by a huge explosion. The blast shattered windows, demolished walls and blew off roofs, and badly damaged the nearby ground of Woolwich Arsenal FC.
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Victorian football dream team
Victorian football boasted many great players, and every club had their own stars. But what would a Victorian football “dream team” made up of eleven of those star players look? This dream team was assembled by Italian author Simone Cola.
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Who really played in the first FA Cup final?
The first FA Cup final was played between Wanderers and Royal Engineers at Kennington Oval on 16 March 1872. That much is true and indisputable. But which players actually played in the match? It’s fairly well-known that one Wanderers player played under a pseudonym, but were there other ringers in the Wanderers and Royal Engineers teams? Conflicting match reports from the time suggest there might have been.
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Football hustlers: British players in America’s first pro soccer league
It was a Victorian football sensation: Five British players – four from Manchester City – walked out on their English clubs to join the brand new American League of Professional Football (ALPF) – the first professional football league outside of Britain.
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How football’s first transfer system worked
“Some people are under the impression that professional football players are bought and sold like cattle,” reads the caption under this image from the 1905 Book of Football. This, the book explained, was an “erroneous idea”. “There is no law of the Football Association to compel any man to go where he does not desire to go.”
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