Derby County FC History Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1884

Derby County F.C. were founded in 1884 as an offshoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club, to give their players a sport to play in the winter months. Just four years later, they became one of the 12 original members of the Football League.

Answer: Baseball Ground

Derby County's first ground on their formation was the Racecourse Ground. In 1895, they moved into the Baseball Ground, which would remain their home stadium for over a century. The record attendance there was 41,826 for a match against Tottenham Hotspur in 1969.

In the 1990's, with new ground regulations requiring all-seater stadiums and subsequent reductions in capacity, the club decided to leave their long-time home and move into a new stadium. The last first team fixture at the Baseball Ground was against Arsenal in 1997, although the club's reserve team continued to play there until 2003.

Answer: The Rams

Derbyshire has a long association with the wool industry, and the county cricket team included a ram on their badge to honour this. When the football team was formed, they also included a ram on their crest, and the nickname stems from this.

Answer: Charlton Athletic

Derby County played in three F.A.Cup finals between 1898 and 1903, losing all three, but fared better in the 1945-46 edition, the first to be held following the end of World War 2. This as the only season that matches, up to and including the quarter finals, were played over two legs. Derby overcame Luton Town, West Bromwich Albion, Brighton and Aston Villa to qualify for the semi-finals.

A 4-0 victory over Birmingham City at Maine Road, Manchester, saw them through to the final at Wembley. On 27th April, 1946, 98,000 fans saw them overcome Charlton Athletic 4-1 after extra time to finally lift the famous old trophy.

Answer: White

Derby County first wore white shirts in season 1895-96 and have done so ever since. Black shorts have been worn for the vast majority of seasons since then, with navy blue ones being worn between 1971 and 1989.

Answer: Brian Clough

Brian Clough left Hartlepool United in 1967 to take over as manager at Derby County. The club were languishing in the second division at the time, but by 1969 he had led the into the top division. In season 1971-72, they were in a four-way battle for the championship, and saw off Leeds United, Liverpool and Manchester City by a single point. Unfortunately for Derby, Clough had ongoing problems with the club's directors, and left in September 1973. Ironically, he would then go on to even greater things with Derby's fiercest rivals, Nottingham Forest.

Answer: Dave Mackay

Dave Mackay was a Scottish internationalist who had won a number of honours with Heart of Midlothian and Tottenham Hotspur before Brian Clough signed him for Derby County in 1968. He retired from playing before the 1971-72 title winning season to become manager of Swindon Town and then Nottingham Forest.

When Clough left Derby in 1973, Mackay replaced him in the manager's seat. In season 1974-75, he led them to the title, two points ahead of Liverpool and Ipswich Town.

Answer: Finn Harps

Finn Harps are a club based in the town of Ballybofey in County Donegal. As a part-time club, they were obviously going to be underdogs against a Derby County team which had finished fourth in the English First Division in season 1975-76. Their worst nightmares were realised when Derby scored a round dozen against them in the first leg, with Kevin Hector netting five times. To rub further salt in their wounds, Derby won the second leg in Ireland 4-1 for for a 16-1 aggregate scoreline.

Answer: Steve Bloomer

Steve Bloomer signed for Derby County as a teenager and scored 273 goals in 419 games before being transferred to Middlesbrough in 1906. He continued to score regularly for 'Boro before returning to Derby in 1910. After scoring another 59 goals for County, he retired in 1913 at the age of 40. On the international front, Bloomer scored 28 times in 23 appearances for England.

Answer: Pride Park

Following the Taylor Report which followed the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, leading clubs in England had to make their stadiums all-seater, with a resultant decrease in capacity, so Derby County decided that their best option was to move into a new stadium. Construction on Pride Park began in November, 1995, and the first match there took place in August, 1997, a friendly match against Italian club Sampdoria.

The official capacity of the new ground was 33,597, with a new club record crowd of 33,378 for the stadium turning up for a game against Liverpool in March, 2000.