OW FOOTBALL TURNS 150 Or does it?

On 13 December 1975, the Old Wykehamist Football Club celebrated its centenary with matches and a dinner at Win Coll.

The likely origin of the 1975 centenary is a notice in The Wykehamist of 23 March 1875 that refers to an ‘Old Wykehamists’ Club’, whose first AGM was held on 26 January 1875.  It was to 'be made available for getting up Football matches for Old Wykehamists’. (See a copy of the notice above). 

It might have been clear to those present which code of Football was intended by Resolution 3, but it is less clear 150 years later.  Did it mean Association Football (finally abbreviated to ‘Soccer’ by the editors of The Wykehamist in 1965) or Winchester Football (then referred to simply as 'Football')?  In those years it was  normal for Winchester Football canvasses to be erected each year in Oxford so that Old Wykehamists could play the game.

It is also possible that the Old Wykehamists' Club was formed in response to this note in November 1874 under Oxford news:

'WINCHESTER FOOTBALL is not being played this term, and the result is an increase of Wykehamical exertions in the Association game.'

Two inferences can be drawn from the foundation of the Old Wykehamists Club and this notice: either the club was formed to support the Association players; or to rescue Winchester Football as an OW game.  Whichever is correct, an OW club devoted to Association Football was formed in 1882 (see below), but it does leave room to claim that a club for Old Wykehamists to play football, as we now know it, was formed 150 years ago. 

To mark this achievement, the OW Football Club celebrated in style by bringing two teams to Winchester on Sunday 5 October.  Please read the full story and to see the gallery of pictures, including the plaque presented by the Football Association. 

After such a successful event, we hope that OWFC teams will visit again next year and not wait for the other sesquicentenary in 2032!