Upton Park Football Club is an amateur

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club from Upton Park, then in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

but now part of the

London Borough of Newham The London Borough of Newham () is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by ...

, in the late 19th and early 20th century, now defunct. As well as being one of the fifteen teams that played in the inaugural

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

1871 Events January–March * January 3 – Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Bapaume – Prussians win a strategic victory. * January 18 – Proclamation of the German Empire: The member states of the North German Confederation and the sout ...

, they also represented

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

at the first ever Olympic football tournament in 1900, which they won.

History

Founded in

1866 Events January * January 1 ** Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee. ** The last issue of the abolitionist magazine '' The Liberator'' is published. * January 6 – Ottoman troops clash ...

, the club were one of the 15 teams to play in the very first edition of the

in 1871–72; they never won the competition but did reach the quarter-finals on four occasions. They were also the inaugural winners of the

London Senior Cup The London Senior Cup is the County Senior Cup of the London FA. The London Senior Cup was first won by Upton Park in 1882. Although the leading professional sides in London no longer compete, the Cup has been won in the past by the likes of ...

in 1882–83. Though resolutely an amateur club, they inadvertently sparked the legalisation of professionalism in the game after complaining about Preston North End's payments to players after the two met in the FA Cup in 1884; Preston were disqualified, but the incident made the FA confront the issue and, under threat of a breakaway, they allowed payments to players the following year. The club were wound up in 1887 but were resurrected four years later in 1891. In 1892 they were founder members of the Southern Alliance, an early league competition amongst teams from southern England, but were bottom of the league with only one win to their name when the competition folded before the 1892–93 season ended. Despite the obvious similarity of name to Upton Park stadium (officially known as the Boleyn Ground), the club had no connection with the ground and never played there; however there were formal links between Upton Park and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

(then known as Thames Ironworks) and many players did play for both. In addition, Upton Park's home games in West Ham Park attracted large crowds to their games, which may have influenced Thames Ironworks' decision to move to the area from

Canning Town Canning Town is a town in the London Borough of Newham, East London, England, north of the Royal Victoria Dock. Its urbanisation was largely due to the creation of the dock. The area was part of the ancient parish and County Borough of West Ham, ...

, where football was not as popular.

1900 Olympic Games

The Amateur Status Committee of the Football Association offered the club the opportunity to play in Paris at the inaugural Olympic Games. Records show that Upton Park were the first club to agree to play but were unlikely to be the first to be asked. Upton Park were not participating in a league at the time playing only cup games and friendlies. They had never reached the semi-final stage of the FA Amateur Cup and the competition was now in its seventh year. The club secretary and goalkeeper James Jones selected the team and brought in players from other amateur teams; Richard Turner joined from Crouch End Vampires, William Gosling, a soldier on leave, joined from

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

, Alfred Chalk joined from

Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...

and Jack Zealley joined from Bridport FC. Gosling's Chelmsford side had beaten Upton Park 7–1 in January 1900. Upton Park won the competition in Paris, beating a USFSA XI representing

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, 4–0. Although a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

was not awarded to the side at the time (it being a

demonstration sport A demonstration sport, or exhibition sport, is a sport which is played to promote it, rather than as part of standard medal competition. This occurs commonly during the Olympic Games but may also occur at other sporting events. Demonstration sport ...

), the IOC have since retrospectively awarded one. The team that day (playing a 2–3–5 formation) was: : James Jones; Claude Buckenham, William Gosling; Alfred Chalk, T. E. Burridge, William Quash; Richard Turner, F. G. Spackman, John Nicholas, Jack Zealley, Henry Haslam (captain) Note that the spellings of names differs slightly from names listed by RSSSF. The scorers were Nicholas (with two), Turner and Zealley.

Honours

Domestic *

**Winners (2): 1882–83, 1883–84 **Runners-Up (1): 1884–85 International *

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

** Gold medalists (1):

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

Famous players

Famous players for the side included Charles Alcock, later president of

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

s Alfred Stair and Segar Bastard (who was also an

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

international), and Charlie Dove, one of the early leading players for Thames Ironworks. Upton Park also supplied two other England internationals, Clement Mitchell and Conrad Warner. Claude Buckenham, who played in the Olympic team of 1900, represented

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Legacy

Upton Park continued to play until at least 1911, according to modern-day records. The Upton Park Trophy, the annual playoff between the league champions of

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

and

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

, is named for the Upton Park side, to commemorate their tenth annual tour of the islands, which they made in 1906. In 2016, coinciding with West Ham United's move to the

London Stadium London Stadium (formerly and also known as the Olympic Stadium and the Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) is a multi-purpose outdoor stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the Stratford, London, Stratford district of London. It is loc ...

, Upton Park were 'reformed' as an amateur club and staged the final game at the

Boleyn Ground Boleyn Ground, often referred to as Upton Park, was a football stadium in Upton Park, London, Upton Park, east London, England. It was the home of West Ham United F.C., West Ham United from 1904 to 2016, and was briefly used by Charlton Athletic ...

, against

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

. Upton Park FC was responsible for proposing two of the most important rule changes in the history of association football: in 1870, the club proposed abolishing all handling of the ball (previously, any player was allowed to catch the ball). In 1871, the club introduced a proposal to create the special position of

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, who alone would be allowed to handle the ball.

Refoundation

The team was refounded in 2016, it is an amateur team and competes only in friendlies, usually for charity.

References

{{Summer Olympics football tournament winners Association football clubs established in 1866 Association football clubs disestablished in 1911 Defunct football clubs in England Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Football at the 1900 Summer Olympics Sport in the London Borough of Newham Defunct football clubs in London 1866 establishments in England 1911 disestablishments in England Great Britain men's Olympic football team