Sheffield Independent, Friday 6 September, 1867

That modest announcement in a local newspaper began the story of one of the most respected and cherished football clubs in England, springing from the very home of football itself. Even before the foundation of the Football Association in 1863, Sheffield had been at the forefront of what is now regarded as our national game - with the world's two oldest football clubs, Sheffield FC (formed 1857) and Hallam FC (formed 1860) leading a rising tide of interest in Association Football, or soccer as it was commonly called.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club was 'born' on the evening of Wednesday 4 September 1867, at a meeting of the members of The Wednesday Cricket Club - named after the day that the players, primarily local craftsmen, took a half-day off work to participate. The meeting took place at The Adelphi public house on the corner of Arundel Street and Sycamore Street (now the site of The Crucible Theatre, made famous as the venue for the World Snooker Championships) in the city centre, where a Mr. John Pashley formally proposed the extension of the Club to include football.

Initially, Pashley's proposal was intended to solve the problem of keeping the cricket club's players together and in decent physical condition over the winter months - yet even at this embryonic stage it was clear that the football branch of the club would hold enough interest to exist independently and even begin to eclipse the cricketing side one day. At the inaugural meeting, Sheffield financial agent Ben Chatterton was elected as Club President with John Marsh confirmed as Club Secretary and team captain, whilst the playing colours of blue and white were selected - a colour scheme which has remained inextricably linked with the Club to this day.

Following a hastily-arranged practice match at their Highfield base the following month, The Wednesday Football Club then completed their first ever game, triumphing over the Mechanics Club at Norfolk Park by three goals and four rouges to nil *.

February 1868 brought the Club's first competitive games, as The Wednesday entered the Cromwell Cup - a tournament sponsored by a certain Oliver Cromwell, manager of the Theatre Royal. Cromwell also played for The Garrick Club, who Wednesday defeated 1-0 after extra time in the Final at Bramall Lane to secure the Club's first-ever piece of silverware.

The next decade and a half heralded a gradual evolution towards fully-fledged professional status, marked most clearly by three Sheffield Challenge Cup triumphs (in 1877, 1878 and 1881), a brace of successes in the Wharncliffe Charity Cup (1879 and 1882), and the acquisition of a Scottish winger, James Lang, now acknowledged as the country's first ever professional footballer. It was also during this period brothers Charles and William Clegg -two enormously influential figures in the Club's formative years - gained England caps, becoming the first Wednesday players to receive international recognition.

By 1883, The Wednesday had emerged as the dominant footballing power in the city. Rapidly outgrowing the local stage and seeking opposition from further afield, they became regular entrants in the FA Cup - their best sequence in this fledgling competition coming in 1881-82, when they reached the Semi-Finals but were eventually obliterated 5-1 by Blackburn Rovers after a replay. That summer, the almost inevitable split of Wednesday's football and cricketing arms took place - with the footballers claiming that their success was earning all the Club's money whilst the cricketers were merely spending it!

The FA Cup's rise in popularity and the subsequent rumblings about an accompanying League competition only spurred Wednesday's rivals towards professionalism, a concept the Club themselves were reluctant to embrace until it was almost too late. A crisis arose when the entry to the 1886-87 FA Cup was not submitted before the relevant deadline, and several of The Wednesday's senior players - key figures like England star Billy Mosforth, Tom Cawley and Harry Winterbottom amongst them - promptly switched allegiances to a local works side, Lockwood Brothers, whose application had been accepted. When those same players than signaled their intent to form a breakaway professional outfit, Sheffield Rovers, The Wednesday's story appeared to be over before it had really begun.

Following drawn-out discussions with leading 'rebel' Mosforth, however, Wednesday President John Holmes began to change his opinion. At the very Sheffield Rovers meeting in which professionalism was due to be rubber-stamped, Cawley made an impassioned plea that Wednesday should be given one final opportunity. Terms were hurriedly offered - five shillings for home games plus seven shillings and sixpence for away fixtures - and on 22 April 1887, The Wednesday became a professional football club.

The next step was to procure a permanent home ground - as several different venues (including Sheaf House and Bramall Lane) had been utilised on an occasional basis so far. A site alongside the railway tracks on Queens Road was leased from the Duke of Norfolk and given the title of Olive Grove. Over £5,000 was lavished on converting the land into a serviceable football stadium, which nonetheless still lacked changing facilities - the players initially having to use the nearby Earl of Arundel and Surrey pub. Blackburn Rovers provided the opposition on opening day and although Mosforth netted Olive Grove's first goal, the Lancastrians led 4-1 until a late Wednesday fightback to 4-4.

Once more, the Club was ready to step onto a bigger stage (a desire fuelled by the foundation of a rival city club, Sheffield United) but Holmes' application to join the Football League in 1889 was refused. Undeterred, the Wednesday President promptly launched an alternative 12-team league competition - the Football Alliance - which also featured the likes of Newton Heath (later to become Manchester United), Small Heath (now Birmingham City) and Nottingham Forest. Even these illustrious opponents, though, could not prevent The Wednesday from being crowned Alliance Champions, winning all eleven of their Olive Grove fixtures, whilst they also reached the FA Cup Final for the first time but were humiliated 6-1 by Blackburn Rovers.

Admission to the Football League was finally granted in 1892, with election to the newly enlarged First Division and a first-day success at Notts County; Tom Brandon notching the Club's maiden league goal. Accrington Stanley were then dismissed 5-2 in Olive Grove's first league fixture but another home victory, in the return against Notts County, was needed in the closing match to safeguard Division One status after an inconsistent debut campaign.

Two seasons of gradual improvement plus two more FA Cup Semi-Finals, indicated that The Wednesday were establishing themselves as one of the country's leading sides - an intention underlined by the capture of the much-coveted FA Cup for the first time in 1896. After an eighth-placed league finish, the side journeyed to the national stadium at Crystal Palace again; returning victorious this time after a Fred Spiksley brace edged out Wolverhampton Wanderers.

This triumph, couple with two more top-six placings in the following years, hinted at a glittering future. Yet the stormclouds were already gathering over Olive Grove. the railway company wanted to extend the existing track, and the Club's lease would not be renewed. To make matters worse, the final campaign at the ground was nothing short of disastrous, as the Wednesday lost 18 of their 34 games and slid out of the top flight for the first time; their fate mathematically confirmed long before the season's climax. To say that the future of the whole Club hung in the balance is no exaggeration.

But salvation was at hand. In early April 1899, a share issue was introduced to help raise the sum of £5,000 - for the Club were in negotiations for a site at Owlerton, in the north west of the city. The move across town from Olive Grove was not universally popular (indeed, a poll amongst supporters revealed that the alternative site at Carbrook was more highly favoured) with fans, yet the Club committee were in unanimous agreement that Owlerton - in those days, a sparsely-populated area which was essentially no more than fields and meadows - was the ideal spot.

With a new base acquired, and the 20^th Century dawning, the destiny of The Wednesday had been altered forever.

* At the time, football goalposts stood only four yards apart with the crossbar nine feet from the ground. Four yards outside each vertical post stood a further "rouge" post, and if a shot passed between these 'inner' and 'outer' goalposts, then a rouge was scored. If any game finished level in terms of goals scored, then the team who had achieved the most rouges were counted as the winners. However, this rather eccentric system was abolished within the year when the frame of football goalposts was amended to the now-regulation size of eight yards wide by eight feet high.