Full Name: Fulham Football Club City: London Country: England League: English Premier League Founded: 1879 Stadium: Craven Cottage (22,000) Colors: Black, White Previous Name: Fulham St Andrew's Church Sunday School FC (1879-88) Nicknames: The Cottagers Rivals: Chelsea, QPR, Brentford
Fulham St Andrew's Church Sunday School formed a football club in 1879 for the church parishioners. Ten years later as the scope of the club expanded beyond the church the name changed to simply Fulham FC. Fulham is a neighborhood of West London. The Cottagers are the oldest professional football club in London. Fulham began competitive life in the Southern League in 1898 before moving to the Football League in 1907 after winning two consecutive Southern League titles.
Craven Cottage:
The stadium is named for a home on the location, built by William Craven, and used by a variety of 18th and 19th century celebrities. The home had virtually collapsed by the time the stadium construction began and the stadium was effectively built around it. Fulham shared the ground of QPR (Loftus Road) for two seasons from 2002-04 while upgrades were done on Craven Cottage. The nickname Cottagers is of course a reference to the Craven Cottage stadium.
Previous stadium: Star Road (1879-83), Eel Brook Common (1883-84), Lillie Road Recreation Ground (1884-85), Putney Lower Common (1885-86), Ranelagh House (1886-88), Barn Elms Playing Fields (1888-89), Parsons Green (1889-91), Half Moon (1891-95), Cpt James Field (1895-96), Craven Cottage (1896-2002), Loftus Road (2002-04).
Sports map specialist Bill Turianski contributes an article to Albion Road roughly once a month, bringing us something from his collection of sports maps.
Details: 