Tottenham Hotspur date their life from 5 September 1882, the day a group of schoolboys began paying their first subscriptions. On 5 September 2027 the north London club turns 145. Behind today's all-white shirts lies a story of children, a knight and a bronze cockerel.

Schoolboys under a lamppost

The founders were boys aged 13 and 14 from two local schools, members of a small cricket club, the Hotspur Cricket Club. Bobby Buckle, together with Sam Casey and John Anderson, came up with the idea of a football team so they could keep playing through the winter.

According to club lore, the decision was made one night under a lamppost on High Road, about 100 yards from the later ground. The exact day of that meeting is not known, so the birthday became 5 September, when the boys paid their sixpence subscriptions.

With the money they bought goalposts, flag material and later a ball. The first recorded match was played on the public land of Tottenham Marshes on 30 September 1882 and was lost 2-0.

The knight behind the name

"Hotspur" honours Sir Henry Percy, the legendary "Harry Hotspur", an English nobleman of the Middle Ages. His family, the Northumberlands, once owned land in the area, which is why there is a Northumberland Park there too.

In April 1884 the team added "Tottenham" to its name, so it would not be confused with another London club also called Hotspur.

From blue to Preston's white

The first recorded kit, in 1883, was a navy blue shirt with a letter H on a red shield and white breeches. Soon after, the team tried quarters in the style of Blackburn Rovers, and in 1890 it even switched to red shirts.

The big change came in the 1898-99 season, when they adopted white shirts with blue shorts, as worn by the mighty Preston North End of the time. That gave rise to the nickname "Lilywhites", and white and navy have stayed ever since.

In 1899 Tottenham moved to the plot behind the White Hart pub, at White Hart Lane. Two years later they lifted the 1901 FA Cup as members of the Southern League, the only club from outside the Football League to have done so.

The cockerel with spurs

Around 1900 the club used spurs as its symbol, a nod to "Hotspur", and over time these turned into a fighting cock. At the end of the 1909-10 season a bronze cockerel standing on a ball, made by former player William James Scott, was placed on the West Stand.

The cockerel first appeared on the shirt at the 1921 FA Cup final. Today a 4.5-metre replica stands on the roof of the new stadium, built on the site of the old one and opened on 3 April 2019.

The Double, Europe and great names

With Bill Nicholson in charge, Tottenham won the first league and cup Double of the 20th century in England in 1960-61. In 1963 they became the first British team to win a European trophy, beating Atlético Madrid 5-1 in the Cup Winners' Cup final.

Two UEFA Cups followed, in 1972 and 1984, and in May 2025 the Europa League, won 1-0 against Manchester United, ended a 17-year wait for a trophy. The following season was a hard one, though, and the team only narrowly avoided relegation.

The white shirt has been worn by legends such as Danny Blanchflower, Jimmy Greaves, Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne, Gareth Bale and Son Heung-min. Harry Kane is the club's all-time top scorer with 280 goals.

Celebrate with us

From sixpence subscriptions and a lamppost on High Road, Tottenham grew into a club that fills one of the most modern stadiums in the world. Happy 145th birthday to Spurs, and as their fans shout, Come on you Spurs!

See our Tottenham Hotspur jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium seen from High Road – Hzh, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.