Newcastle United's origins began during November 1881 when the Stanley Cricket Club of South Byker decided to form an Association Football club. It was not until 1895 when the club became Newcastle United. After a series of name changes, a public meeting was set up to decide the final name of the club. Newcastle Rangers and Newcastle City were two of the names put forward but eventually the board settled with Newcastle United.
United played their first game under their new title in a friendly against Middlesborough on Christmas Eve 1892. The first competitive game was also against their North East rivals a month later in the F.A Cup. Newcastle entered the football league in 1893, when they were offered a place in League Division Two. Their first season in league football also saw the introduction of the now famous Black and White stripes.
Promotion to the first division was finally achieved in 1898 and attendances were getting higher and higher as Newcastle United began to establish themselves. In their first season in the top flight, United finished a respectable 13th. 1905 saw the start of the most successful period in the club's history as the magpies captured the title. The Championship was again theirs in 1907 and 1909.
A year later, after a series of Cup final defeats in the early part of the decade, Newcastle finally won the F.A Cup at Goodison Park with a replay win against Barnsley. After the war, Newcastle again enjoyed F.A Cup success in 1924, this was only the second ever final to be played at the legendary Wembley Stadium. That season also signalled the signing of one of the Newcastle great's Hughie Gallacher, signed from from Airdrie. He went on to be Newcastle's top scorer for the following five seasons. He also, scored an amazing 39 goals in 1927 which helped United lift their third league title.
Another F.A Cup victory took place the following year under new manager Andy Cunningham. However, these glory days were never to be repeated. During the 1933-34 campaign, despite enjoying an excellent festive season, thrashing Everton 7-3 and Liverpool 9-2 in the space of a few days, Newcastle trailed off and were eventually relegated, ending 36 years of top flight football. World War Two was soon to come and this gave United the chance to search for new talent, Jackie Milburn in particular was an example of this. The football league resumed in 1946 and United and built a strong team to compete for promotion. However, in was not until 1965 when Newcastle returned to top flight football as Division 2 Champions. They had come so close in the previous seasons, always finishing there and there abouts but finally they did it.
In 1968 entered European Competition for the first time in the UEFA Inter Cities Fairs Cup better known today as the Uefa Cup. Newcastle were given no chance at all and were big under-dogs. United beat the likes of Sporting Lisbon, Glasgow Rangers and Feyenord before amazingly making it to the final where they defeated the Hungarians Ujpest Dozsa home and away in the final to lift the trophy. Bobby Moncur was instrumental in doing this and got his reward as captain as he lifted Newcastle's only ever European trophy. In the summer of 1971, Joe Harvey tried a different formula, with both Robson and Davies moving on; Harvey paid a club record fee for arrogant Cockney striker Malcolm MacDonald, and the next five years belonged to "Supermac". In 1974 United again reached the cup final but were easily defeated by Liverpool 3-0.
In 1978 Newcastle went down to Division Two and Arthur Cox was given the job to rebuild the club. In 1982, Cox brought striker Kevin Keegan to St. James' for a bargain 100,000 pounds. He built a strong team including the likes of Beardsley and Waddle, thus promotion was gained. However, Cox was soon to be replaced with local hero Jack Charlton who became unpopular on Tyneside, with his unattractive football. The board were also criticised, as Newcastle became a selling club, cashing in on the likes of Gazza and Waddle. In February 1992, Newcastle were looking at relegation to the (old) third division and certain bankruptcy enter Kevin Keegan. With 16 games to save a 100 year old North East institution, and having no managerial experience, Keegan brought in free transfer players Brian Kilcline and Kevin Sheedy to add some experience. Newcastle won their first game 3-0 in front of 30,000 people, and, despite some defeats, survived by beating Leicester City 2-1 away in the last game.
Sir John Hall took over the club and in 1993, promotion back to the top flight took place with Keegans Newcastle running away with the Division 1 title. Promotion to the Carling Premiership was thus gained and United finished 3rd in their first season, winning the hearts of the nation with their Keegan attacking style play. In season 95/96, Newcastle led the league by a massive gap only to through it away to Manchester United. Keegan never really recovered from this and handed in his resignation in January of the following year. To the end of the decade Newcastle were managed by both Kenny Dalglish and Ruud Gullit but both didn't seem to realise the task of the job and were duly sacked. They did however, lead the cup back to Wembley in the cup final, only to lose badly. Finally, United now seem to have a manager in Bobby Robson who like Keegan did, understands the club. Having saved the club from relegation, Robson is beginning to untangle the mess left by Gullit and Dalglish.
