Scarborough Football Club was originally formed in 1879 by members of the town’s cricket club, initially playing their matches at the North Marine Road cricket ground. Their first two matches were played as experimental games, and unusually for that time they were played under floodlights. Financially these were not successful, and the floodlighting idea was dropped but the football carried on. For this season they were playing under rugby football rules, but the following season they played fixtures under both rugby and football association rules. On 6th November 1880 the first associated football rules game was played against Bridlington. In 1887 they moved from the cricket ground to the adjoining recreation ground on North Marine Road, and it was in this year that they first played in the F.A. Cup.
They did not join a league until 1893 when they joined the Cleveland Amateur League. However, their stay was only brief as there were too many complaints about how narrow the pitch was, and consequently halfway through the season they were expelled. They successfully applied to join the Northern League Division 2 in 1897 and the following year they took up an offer from the Scarborough Corporation to lease a field off Seamer Road which was turned into the Athletic Ground and this became their home until 2007. In 1998 it was renamed the McCain Stadium in a pioneering sponsorship deal.
They joined the Midland League in 1927 and became champions of that league three years later. In the same year they managed to get to the third round of the F.A. Cup, a feat which they repeated seven years later in 1937-38. The club’s most successful period started in 1968 when their performances led to an invitation to play in the new Northern Premier League. Over the next 10 years they would be at Wembley four times to play in the final of the F.A. Trophy and in three of those (1972-73, 1975-76 and 1976-77) they came away with the Trophy, the first club to become three times winners. They were runners up in 1974-75. In 1987, Neil Warnock was taken on as Manager and in the same year they were the first club to gain automatic promotion to the Football League Fourth Division. A year later they were in the play-offs to seek promotion to the Third Division but lost out to Leyton Orient. Neil Warnock was then attracted to the job at Notts County.
From that time they had mixed fortunes but did manage some giant killing in cup competitions. In 1989 they beat Chelsea 3-2 at home in a replay after a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. Their best run saw them beat Bradford City, Coventry City and Plymouth Argyle in the 1992-93 season. However, the early years of the new century were difficult times for the club and after a number of demotions they were wound up in 2007 with debts of £2.5m and their ground became the site of housing and a supermarket. Since then they have risen from the ashes in the form of Scarborough Athletic.
