Preston North End
The club traces its origins back to 1863 when cricket was regularly organised on “The Marsh,” a spit of land in the Ribble estuary. When the Preston Corporation opened a new public cricket ground at Moor Park in the northern part of the town, some members moved to the new facility and adopted the name “North End.” In 1875 the club took out a lease on a field at Deepdale, where the modern club still plays.
Around this time association football was becoming increasingly popular as a spectator sport in the industrial towns of Lancashire. Members first played football in 1878 and two years later they voted to adopt association rules in May 1880. In 1880-1881 the club played the Blackburn Rovers, one of the strongest teams in the country, three times and were trounced 0-16 in their third game played in March 1881.
Following the example of their Lancashire neighbours, Preston recruited players from Scotland (where the game was more advanced), offering financial inducements and employment to build a team that would become known as “The Invincibles.” In 1884 following an English Cup tie, Upton Park FC lodged a protest, alleging that some Preston players were paid. Club captain William Sudell did not deny this and although North End were expelled from the competition, the row led directly to the acceptance of professionalism.
Between August 1885 and April 1886 North End went 64 matches undefeated, winning 59 and scoring 318, conceding only 60. In 1887-88, they won 42 consecutive matches, established an English record that stands to this day by beating Hyde United 26-0 and reached the English Cup final.
Preston were invited to join the new Football League the following season. Now playing in plain white shirts and navy knickers, they achieved the first ever “double” by winning the championship without losing a match and won the English FA Cup without conceding a goal. The League championship was won again the following season and the club were runners up for the three seasons after that.
The club’s remarkable debut, which led to their nickname, “Proud Preston,” could not be sustained. In 1901 they were relegated although they returned as Division Two champions in 1904. In the four seasons before the First World War, North End were relegated, promoted, relegated and promoted yet again.
After the war, North End struggled to stay in the First Division although they did reach the FA Cup final in 1922. Relegated in 1925, they were back in Division One in 1934. They were Cup finalists again in 1937 and
the following year, they won the competition for the second time.
From 1933 the team wore the Preston coat of arms on their shirts. This consisted of the lamb and flag (a biblical reference) above the letters "PP," which are generally believed to stand for "Proud Preston."
A peculiarity of the period 1935 to 1957 was that the socks sometimes appeared to be a rather paler shade of dark blue than the navy knickers worn by the team. It also appears that the socks worn between 1951 and 1957 had cadet stripes on the tops and on the part of the sock normally concealed by the turnover. If the turnover was not perfectly folded the underlying bands would appear, giving the appearance of three or four narrow bands, while the
early examples (up until 1954) had a large white "foot" that could extend part way up the calf.
After the Second World War the legendary figure of locally born Tom Finney dominated Deepdale but it was an era of near misses. Preston were runners-up in the League in 1953 and 1958, and reached the FA Cup Final in 1954. When Finney retired in 1960 the impact was immediate and North End were relegated the following season. In 1964 they narrowly missed out on promotion and reached the FA Cup final yet again but this was to
be the last swan song of a club that could no longer compete with the rising big city sides.
During the 1970s Preston played in both Second and Third Divisions wearing all-white strips. The famous crest was dropped in 1974 in favour of a more fashionable monogramme although for part of the 1975-76 season, the modern Preston arms were worn.
Between 1979 and 1986 both the traditional crest and monogramme
appeared on North End's shirts in various
configurations. After 1983 the script used for the lettering was replaced by a modern font that appeared on the left breast while the crest was worn in the middle of the chest.
In 1985 the club dropped into Division Four and the following season, Proud Preston suffered the indignity of having to apply for re-election. In 1987 they were promoted but made no further progress and dropped down again in 1993.
Several variations of the traditional crest appeared in the 90s. The 1993 version added a golden halo and the club's name appeared out of a scroll. The following year the lamb and flag motif was reduced to a shield within a shield.
For the 1995-96 season a more enduring design appeared: the lamb and flag and the club's name now being given equal weight within a navy shield. This was modified slightly the following season when gold was added and the shape of the shield was simplified.
At the start of the 1998-99 season yet another version appeared: the design was now embroidered in navy blue directly onto the shirt without a supporting shield. This incarnation proved a great deal more enduring than its predecessors and was worn virtually unaltered for the next ten years.
After 1996 Preston's fortunes revived and they rose to Nationwide Division One (second tier) in 2000. They featured twice in the play-offs and the prospects of returning to the top flight no longer seemed as remote as they did in the mid 1980s.
In 2009 work on improving Deepdale, begun in 1996, was completed providing an all-
seated capacity of 23,400. Should the club's circumstances justify expansion, the roofs of three stands may be removed so additional tiers can be added to create up to 50,000 seats. Deepdale is also home of the National Football Museum and now the oldest stadium in the world to have been continuously used for football.
In 2010 the club adopted a slightly updated crest. The version shown here was worn by the team and is slightly different to the one that appeared on the club's web site, which had additional navy blue "shadows" behind the main shield.