Middlesbrough FC were formed in 1876 when a bunch of bored, out-of-season cricketers started to kick a football about and thought, wow, this is so much more fun than that dull old game we play in the summer. So, Middlesbrough Cricket Club soon became Middlesbrough Football Club. The details of how they came to be are sketchy, but it seems they were founded in or around the Albert Park Hotel on Linthorpe Road. Around the middle of 1889, the club had a falling out among themselves over the possibility of turning professional. A breakaway club developed and they called themselves the Ironopolis. The Nops played at the Paradise Ground which later became part of the Ayrsome Park site, and Middlesbrough played at Linthorpe Road. Both clubs eventually turned professional and lasted about three years. Middlesbrough reverted back to amateur status before they did any lasting financial damage to the club. The Nops, however, after getting into the 2nd Division went belly-up after one season, leaving themselves in a financial position from which they could not recover, and they were up the Tees without a paddle. Middlesbrough, however, carried on playing as an amateur side and gained much success throughout the 1890s. This success forced Middlesbrough to rethink their status, and in 1899 they were elected to the Football League.
Boro is of course, the club’s nickname and there are no prizes for working out why. Their first home game in the League was at Linthorpe Road, and their opponents were a club called Small Heath, (see Birmingham City) Boro lost the game 3-1, but got over it and soon started picking up results. Their following success resulted in growing crowds and a need to relocate to a bigger ground. On September 12th 1903, Boro played their first home game at the ground that was to be their home for the next 90 years, Ayrsome Park, and to spoil the party local rivals Sunderland beat them 3-2. The early financial problems of the 1880s that dogged both Middlesbrough teams came back a hundred years later in 1986, when Boro were forced into receivership.
Middlesbrough bounced back with a new outlook and a new badge that replaced the old one. (PIC 1) Many thanks, go to Middlesbrough’s commercial manager Graham Fordy, who replied to my letter. Graham writes:
“The badge was redesigned in 1986, when the club was steered out of receivership by a consortium of four companies. We needed to differentiate between what had been the past and what was the new club for the future. The badge is very simplistic and of a modern design for the time, 1986. Heraldic badges were a thing of the past or certainly appeared to be. Our design is circular, and represents the game we play, and the club and fans were united in making sure the club survived. The lettering is who we are and the date signifies the year the new club was formed. (PIC 2) The rampant lion is part of the town badge and the old club badge. This is also used by the Middlesbrough Rugby and Cricket club’s and is very symbolic of the area”.
Thank you, once again Graham for your input. The Middlesbrough coat of arms from where the lion is taken is made up of a rampant blue lion, as worn on the Boro shirt, albeit a red one, and this stems from the Brus family. (PIC 3) The sailing ships show the importance of shipbuilding in the town. The estoile, or star is from the arms of Captain Cook who was from the Stokesly area. The crest has a lion upon a gold mural crown, and supports an anchor. An anchor means to stay awhile as in “he put down anchor in the local pub”. The motto “ERIMUS” means in Engerlish, We Will Be, and is from the Brus motto. It is apparently appropriate for a progressive town. Progressive they are as they have progressed to a new logo since Graham wrote to me. The fairly new badge on the shirt has the same elements as already explained, but is now in a shield and the club’s name is shared between the crest and a banner. (PIC 4)
They also seemed to have put the past and its financial troubles behind them, as they have changed the dates from 1986, when they nearly sank into the Tees without a trace, to the year they first glided down the slipway and formed in 1876. Mydilsburgh is the earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough’s name, and is Anglo-Saxon in origin. Burgh refers to an ancient settlement, and Mydil is a reference to Middlesbrough’s middle location halfway between the Christian burghs of Durham and Whitby. Boro play at the Riverside Stadium and was the first purpose-built stadium to comply with the Taylor report after the tragic events of Hillsborough. Built-in just 32 weeks, it opened in August 1995, holding 35,000 fans, and is a landmark across the Middlesbrough skyline. When it opened for the start of the 1995/96 season it was the biggest new football stadium built since the war. The ground was named by the fans and the Riverside Stadium lies beside the river, the river being the Tees. Local rivals are Sunderland and Newcastle. For more on “The Boro” ship your way to www.mfc.co.uk
