Birmingham City Football Club, an English association football club based in Birmingham, was founded as Small Heath Alliance in September 1875, and from 1877 played home games at Muntz Street. It adopted professionalism in 1885, and three years later, as Small Heath F.C., became a limited company with a board of directors, the first football club so to do. The team played in the Football Alliance from the 1889–90 season, and in 1892, along with the other Alliance teams, were invited to join the newly formed Second Division of the Football League. Although they finished as champions, they failed to win promotion via the test match system; the following season promotion to the First Division was secured after a second-place finish and test match victory over Darwen. The club adopted the name Birmingham Football Club in 1905, and the following year moved into a new home, St Andrew's Ground. Matters on the field failed to live up to their surroundings. Birmingham were relegated in 1908, obliged to apply for re-election two years later, and remained in the Second Division until after the First World War.
Under the captaincy of Frank Womack, who went on to set club appearance records, Birmingham won their second Division Two title in 1920–21. The 19-year-old Joe Bradford made his debut in 1920; he was to score a club record 267 goals in 445 games and win 12 caps for England. In 1931, manager Leslie Knighton led the club to their first FA Cup Final; they lost 2–1 to Second Division club West Bromwich Albion. Though Birmingham remained in the top flight for 18 seasons, they struggled in the league, placing too much reliance on England goalkeeper Harry Hibbs to make up for the lack of goals, Bradford excepted, at the other end. They were finally relegated in 1938–39, the last full season before the Football League was suspended for the duration of the Second World War.
The name Birmingham City F.C. was adopted in 1943. Under Harry Storer, appointed manager in 1945, the team won the Football League South wartime league and reached the semi-final of the first post-war FA Cup. Two years later they won their third Second Division title, conceding only 24 goals in the 42-game season. Storer's successor, Bob Brocklebank, though unable to stave off relegation in 1950, brought in players who made a major contribution to the club's successes of the next decade. After taking over halfway through the 1954–55 season, Arthur Turner led the team to another Second Division title followed by what remains their highest league finish, of sixth place in the First Division, in 1955–56. They also reached the FA Cup final, losing 3–1 to Manchester City in the game best remembered for City's goalkeeper Bert Trautmann playing the last 20 minutes with a broken bone in his neck. The following season the club lost in the FA Cup semi-final for the third time since the war, this time beaten 2–0 by Manchester United's "Busby Babes".
Birmingham became the first English club side to take part in European competition when they played their first fixture in the inaugural Inter-Cities Fairs Cup competition in May 1956; they lost to Barcelona after a replay in the semi-final. They were also the first to reach a European final, losing to Barcelona in the 1960 Fairs Cup final, and also lost to Roma in 1961. As a player, Gil Merrick had beaten Womack's appearance record and been England's regular goalkeeper; as manager, his team saved their best form for cup competitions. Opponents in the 1963 League Cup final, local rivals Aston Villa, were pre-match favourites, but Birmingham raised their game and won 3–1 on aggregate to lift their first major trophy. By 1965, Merrick had been asked to resign, and after ten years in the top flight, Birmingham were back in the Second Division.
1875–92: The early years In 1875, when members of the cricket team based at Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, on the east side of Birmingham, decided they wanted something to do in the winter months, they formed a football team. Playing under the name of Small Heath Alliance, their early games took place on a piece of waste ground off Arthur Street. As interest grew, they moved to an enclosed field in the Sparkbrook area where admission could be charged. In 1877, they decamped again, this time paying £5 a year to the family of a team member to rent a field adjacent to Muntz Street, in the Small Heath district, which became their home for the next 29 years.Matthews (1995). Complete Record. p. 8.
For the first thirteen years of their existence, there was no league football, so friendly matches were arranged on an ad hoc basis, supplemented by cup competitions organised at local and national level. During the 1880s, they played between 20 and 30 matches each season.Matthews. Encyclopedia. p. 8. They played Aston Villa, the team that would become their main local rivals, for the first time in 1879; Small Heath won by "a goal and a disputed goal to nil". They first entered the Birmingham Senior Cup in 1878–79,Matthews (2010). Complete Record. p. 504. made their debut in the national cup competition, the FA Cup, in 1881–82 – Billy Slater scored their first goal in nationally organised football as Small Heath beat Derby Town 4–1Matthews (2010). Complete Record. p. 466. – and won their first trophy, the Walsall Cup, the following season. In 1885–86, Small Heath reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, in which they faced West Bromwich Albion in front of 10,000 spectators at Aston Lower Grounds. According to the Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, Small Heath, who were by no means one of the foremost teams in the Birmingham area, had had a fortunate draw in the competition, whereas their opponents, fellow members of the Birmingham Football Association, were among the strongest in the country. Albion won easily, by four goals to nil, and the game was ended early after the losing supporters invaded the pitch and pelted the Albion goalkeeper with snowballs.
As soon as payment of players over and above their actual out-of-pocket expenses was permitted by the Football Association for the first time, in 1885, the Small Heath club turned professional. The players did not receive a salary, but instead shared half the gate money. Three years later, at the suggestion of Walter Hart, the president of the Birmingham FA who had once been the club's honorary secretary, it became the first football club to structure itself as a limited company with a board of directors,Inglis. League Football. pp. 390–91. under the name of The Small Heath Football Club Limited. The original company listed its objects as "to acquire a Football Club to play the game of Association Football and the doing all such other things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of the above", set its nominal capital at £500, to be divided into ten-shilling shares, and its memorandum of association listed seven initial subscribers who between them took up 35 of the 1000 shares. These included Hart, who became the first chairman of its board, Alfred Jones, honorary secretary, and William Starling.
Small Heath were not among the select twelve clubs invited to join the Football League, which was to begin in 1888. Instead, they joined the Football Combination, a second league formed to provide organised football for such excluded clubs. This was not a success; poor organisation caused it to fold in April 1889 with many fixtures still outstanding.Inglis. League Football. p. 12. For 1889–90, Small Heath were accepted into the Football Alliance, a new second league whose committee adopted the more successful aspects of the Football League's organisation, including limiting team numbers to a manageable twelve, and arranging and publishing the fixture list before the season began. After two tenth-place finishes, and elimination from the 1890–91 FA Cup for fielding an ineligible player, they finished third in 1891–92, helped by Fred Wheldon's 21 goals from the 22 matchesMatthews (2010). Complete Record. pp. 224–29. and Caesar Jenkyns' captaincy and physical centre-half play.Matthews (1995). Complete Record. p. 9. Jenkyns became the first man to play a senior international match while a Small Heath player when selected for Wales for the 1892–93 Home Internationals.Matthews. Encyclopedia. pp. 121–22. They also progressed through four qualifying rounds and one round proper to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup. Drawn first, and therefore having choice of venue, Small Heath accepted Sheffield Wednesday's offer of £200 to forfeit home advantage and play the match at Wednesday's Olive Grove ground; they lost.
1892–1905: Small Heath in the Football League
The Football League decided to expand its membership for the 1892–93 season by forming a Second Division. Although Small Heath's application for admission to the enlarged First Division failed, they were one of eight Football Alliance teams accepted into the Second. The directors appointed Alfred Jones as the club's first paid secretary, and William Starling was elected to the Football League Management Committee as one of two representatives of the Second Division.Inglis. League Football. p. 387. During the season, the team scored 90 goals at an average of 4 goals per game, beat Walsall Town Swifts 12–0 to set a club record League victory which, , still stands, remained undefeated on their own ground, and won the last nine matches of the season to take the inaugural Second Division title. Goalkeeper Chris Charsley, a policeman who played as an amateur and went on to serve as chief constable of Coventry, became the first Small Heath player to be capped by England. Promotion to the First Division was not automatic, even for the champions, but depended on the results of test matches between the top three Second Division and bottom three First Division teams. Small Heath lost to 16th-placed First Division team Newton Heath (the future Manchester United) after a replay, so were not promoted, although the teams placed second and third were.Inglis. League Football. p. 30. Their success at the second attempt, as 1893–94 runners-up and victors over Darwen in the test match, was met with relief as well as celebration. The club had been in serious financial difficulty during the season, during which it added a loss of £222 to an existing deficit of some £350; the Birmingham Daily Post believed that "defeat would in all probability have meant the disbanding of the club", ambitions of promotion having sustained the committee's efforts throughout the season to raise enough funds to keep going.