The Founding of Manchester United Football Club
Published on Saturday, October 12, 2013
Manchester United, one of the greatest and strongest forces in the global game of football, owe their existence to, of all things, the combination of an escaped dog, a brewery owner, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. The employees of the Carriage and Wagon department were granted permission by the railway company to start a football team. The railway company were a great help as they provided funding and paid for the lease on the first home ground of the team - a field close to the railway yard.
Initially playing against other departments and railway companies and dressed in the green and gold colours of the railway company; the team were known as Newton Heath LYR (the last three letters standing for Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway).
Newton Heath LYR did not consider themselves worthy of entry to the Football League when it was first formed and instead a string of friendlies paved the way for them to become a founding member of a different regional league known as The Combination. This did not prove successful, and this league folded before the end of the very first season due to financial difficulties.
Undeterred, the club joined the Football Alliance, and then the Football League when the two merged in 1892. By this time the LYR part had been dropped from the club's name and it had become independent from the railway company, despite the fact that most of the players were still employed there.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the club were in huge financial trouble, and they seemed doomed for extinction when they were served a winding-up order in 1902. The legend of how they were saved has gone into football folklore, with the story telling us the following:
Apparently a dog belonging to the captain of the team escaped from a bazaar that was being held, to try to raise money for the club. The dog was carrying a collection tin and he found his way to brewery owner John Henry Davies; whose daughter was so smitten with the dog, he endeavoured to find out the origin of the animal and his tin. When he discovered the problems the team were having, he decided to try and help.
Whatever the truth behind the legend, it was Davies who gathered together a group of wealthy businessmen, who managed to save the club. They changed the club colours to red and white, as well as changing the name; based on their new location in Manchester. Nearly called Manchester Celtic or Central; Manchester finally became United.
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