Blackburn Rovers’ history as a club dates all the way back to November 1875 when founded by two old boys of Shrewsbury school. The Ewood Park outfit have since built a fabled story.
Club name
John Lewis and Arthur Constantine chaired a meeting at the St Leger Hotel on King William Street to create an Association rules football team in November 1875. From those talks, they founded Blackburn Rovers and named their club as such owing to the town of their origin.
The ‘Rovers’ aspect of Blackburn Rovers’ name further stems from the club not having a set home stadium at first. Clubs of the era adopted the ‘Rovers’ suffix for their names to denote them moving from ground to ground. Blackburn Rovers only settled at Ewood Park in 1890.
Blackburn Rovers badge
Blackburn Rovers have only embraced six variations of badges throughout the club’s history. Three of the Lancashire natives’ crests have also stemmed from the same design introduced for the first time in 1990. Club chiefs have since only modified minor aspects of their badge.
The Ewood Park natives respect the club’s esteemed history and also the sign for the House of Lancaster, the red rose. It has been on every version of the team’s crest since 1974. While Blackburn added their Latin motto ‘Arte et labore’, meaning ‘By art and by labour’, in 1990.
Rovers re-introduced their Latin motto to their badge in 1990 from Blackburn’s town coat of arms used from 1960. The club first adopted the town’s shield for their crest for the 1960 FA Cup final against Wolves. Blackburn would even also keep it as their badge through to 1974.
Blackburn’s town coat of arms recognised the region’s industrial history. It contained a white background to denote the textile industry, along with a spool of a loom. It further featured a white horn between two golden diamonds. Three bees also took prominence on the shield.
Blackburn’s town coat of arms replaced Rovers’ first badge
Ewood Park chiefs elected to adopt Blackburn’s town coat of arms as their badge for the FA Cup final to replace the first crest in the club’s history. Rovers initially only embraced a blue Maltese cross. It stemmed from their founding fathers’ past relations to Shrewsbury School.
A new crest beckoned in 1974 as Blackburn adopted just the red rose of Lancashire as the club’s badge. Rovers sought to embrace a bright red rose as their badge with the addition of their initials, BRFC, beneath it. Blackburn further used the same shade of red for their name.
The design remained in use until the 1989/90 campaign when Blackburn introduced the first version of their current badge. The club kept the Lancashire rose but re-introduced the Latin saying from their town’s coat of arms. Rovers also added a stalk with leaves to the red rose.
To further the design, Blackburn placed the Latin motto in a box beneath a circle containing the rose. A blue ring containing the club’s name and founding year also bordered the circle. Blackburn have since only modified their badge twice in the 2000s with new colour pallets.
Kit history
Blackburn Rovers are synonyms with white-and-blue two-toned kits almost entirely through the club’s history. But their early days saw the Lancashire side adopt white jerseys. Although they also adopted a blue and white skull cap, from which their club colours would take hold.
It did not take the club long to begin wearing white-and-blue two-toned kits. However early variations of their strip embraced navy blue before light blue became Blackburn’s main club colour. The Edwardian era also saw Rovers use a darker shade, a theme that has continued.
League history
Blackburn Rovers were one of the 12 founding members of the Football League in 1888 with other clubs from the Midlands and the North of England. They would also finish the maiden season of organised league football fourth in the 1888/89 table with 10 wins over 22 games.
Rovers had already played in an organised tournament since 1879 after entering the FA Cup eight years after its creation. They also became an early, dominant force in the competition. Blackburn’s early investments in the sport delivered successive trophies in 1884, ‘85 and ‘86.
The creation of organised league football did not diminish Blackburn’s strength as an FA Cup specialist, either. Further titles in the oldest national football competition in the world flowed into Ewood Park. But Rovers’ fans had to wait until the 1911/12 season for a first top-flight title.
Blackburn Rovers won the first league title in the club’s history in 1911/12
Blackburn secured a seat in Division One upon the creation of Division Two in 1892/93. The newly-formed tier proved a happy home for Rovers and silverware finally arrived in 1911/12 after finishing third in 1909/10. Rovers also finished third in the Football League in 1889/90.
It would not take them nearly 20 years to match the result as a second title followed suit in 1913/14. But the outbreak of World War I brought an end to Blackburn’s emergence as one of the top league teams. No further titles also followed before they endured relegation in 1936.
The outbreak of World War II also saw league football be abandoned as Blackburn returned to the top-flight. Rovers won the 1938/39 Division Two title but would return to the second tier during 1948. It would take Blackburn another 10 years to regain a seat at the top-flight table.
Relegation beckoned once again in 1966, though, and yet another relegation soon followed in 1971. For the first time in the club’s history, Blackburn Rovers were a third-tier side. They also registered the club’s lowest-ever league finish to date in 1973/74 with 13th in Division Three.
Blackburn Rovers bounced right back from their lowest-ever league finish
Yet fresh off of recording their worst league finish ever, Blackburn sealed the Division Three title in 1974/75. Life back in Division Two would not last too long as Rovers returned to the third tier in 1979. But they would then gain promotion once again at the first time of asking.
This time, it would not be relegation which broke Blackburn Rovers’ bond with Division Two but rather promotion. They claimed a 1-0 win over Leicester City in the play-off final to join the newly-formed Premier League during its inaugural season in 1992/93 and make new history.
Only Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and Everton were among the founding members of the Football League and the Premier League. While Blackburn became one of the first winners of the Premier League in 1994/95. They would build on a second-place finish to the 1993/94 term.
Blackburn Rovers became Premier League winners in 1994/95
Boyhood Rovers fan Jack Walker bankrolled Blackburn to become top-flight champions over Manchester United. The Ewood Park natives paid Southampton a then-British record £3.5m for Alan Shearer in July 1992. He was Rovers’ top scorer in all four of his seasons at the club.
The small-town club has since fallen on much harder times, however. Blackburn would only follow up their Premier League title with a seventh-place finish in 1995/96. Relegation came calling in 1998/99, too. Although they secured promotion from the second tier in 2000/01.
Premier League football would stay in Lancashire through to 2012 but Blackburn never came close to another title. Their best league finishes across 11 seasons of top-flight football were in 2002/03 and 2005/06 with sixth-place results. They also finished seventh during 2007/08.
Finishing seventh in the Premier League, let alone winning the title, then turned into a faint dream for Rovers. Blackburn even returned to the third tier in 2017/18 but would finish the League One campaign in second place. Wigan Athletic beat Rovers to the title by two points.
Blackburn Rovers trophies
Ewood Park has witnessed several successful sides seal silverware to strengthen Blackburn Rovers’ trophy cabinet throughout the club’s history. The FA Cup has also proven to be the team’s most successful tournament. The Lancashire club have lifted the trophy six times yet.
Blackburn first won the FA Cup back in 1884 for the first trophy in the club’s storied history, as well. They would even defend the title across the following two seasons before enjoying two further titles in 1890 and 1891. But success has proven far more scarce over the years since.
Top-flight league honours have also been scarce, despite Blackburn being past champions in the Division One era and also in the Premier League. Although the relegations that litter the club’s history have further seen Blackburn Rovers win titles in the second and third divisions.
One English Football League Cup (EFL Cup) honour, one Community Shield title and one Full Members’ Cup trophy also feature in Blackburn’s history. While Rovers have enjoyed several European tours with Champions League and UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) campaigns.
Players and managers
The highs and lows throughout the Ewood Park side’s history as a club have also made many Blackburn Rovers legends. The Lancashire club have also recognised Walker’s commitment to their cause with a statue of the benefactor outside of the Ronnie Clayton Blackburn End.
Blackburn named the stand after Ronnie Clayton, the club’s iconic right-half who produced a fabled career from 1950 to 1969. He was the ultimate one-club man and also a player loved by all. The true gentleman played 665 times and reached the 1960 FA Cup final as their captain.
Only Derek Fazackerley, who enjoyed 671 appearances for Blackburn Rovers, featured more often for the club than Clayton. While Simon Garner remains the club’s record goalscorer on 192 in 565 games between 1978 to 1992. Shearer struck 130 goals in 171 games at Blackburn.
Kenny Dalglish, meanwhile, stood at the Ewood Park helm from 1991 to 1995 and oversaw Blackburn Rovers’ Premier League title. He also led the club to promotion from the second tier as play-off champions in 1992. While Graeme Souness oversaw their 2002 EFL Cup title.