Sheffield Wednesday F.C.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club in the English Football League, based in Sheffield, UK.

Names

The Wednesday Football Club was known to many simply as The Wednesday until 1929, when sources suggest that the club was officially renamed Sheffield Wednesday under the stewardship of manager Bob Brown. Evidence however suggests that the name Sheffield Wednesday dates back as far as 1883: the former ground at Olive Grove had the name Sheffield Wednesday painted on the stand roof and indeed the winner's name on the FA Cup was inscribed as Sheffield Wednesday in both 1896 and 1907.

Related Topics:
1929 - Bob Brown

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They are the only English League club with a day of the week in their name. The club derives its name from its predecessor, The Wednesday Cricket Club, whose meetings were held on Wednesday afternoons. Wednesday was traditionally the day that the local craftsmen who formed the club took their half-day off to play sports. Links between football and cricket were severed in 1883 and the cricket club has not been in existence since the 1920s.

Related Topics:
Wednesday - Craftsmen

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Wednesday's original nickname was "the Blades" - now the nickname of their long-term rivals, Sheffield United - until the start of the 20th century when a player presented them with an owl mascot to honour their stadium at Hillsborourgh. Since then, the club has simply been known as "the Owls".

Related Topics:
Sheffield United - Hillsborourgh

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One feature of the jocular but sometimes intense rivalry between the two Sheffield sides is the nickname used by both sets of fans to describe their rival team: "the Pigs". Reasons often quoted for this are that United's red and white striped shirts make them look like sides of bacon, whereas the blue and white stripes of Wednesday resemble a butcher's apron; however, regardless of the etymology of the phrase, the nickname is used largely as an insult.

Related Topics:
Bacon - Butcher

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