Wrexham AFC’s club history is a long and storied tale filled with ups and downs as the oldest football side in Wales. Founded in 1864, the Red Dragons are also enjoying a new chapter of their story in the English Football League with owners, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.
Club name
Secretary of Denbighshire County Cricket Club, Edward Manners, motioned the prospect of forming a football club in October 1864 at an end of season dinner. It was from his idea that Wrexham Football and Athletic Club were formed to offer amusement in the winter months.
Wrexham have since embraced a wide variety of names throughout the club’s history owing to various reasons. It was also only in 2013 that members of the Wrexham Supporters Trust voted to readopt the word ‘Association’ in the club’s name following a long-running debate.
Geoff Moss removed ‘Association’ from Wrexham’s team name in 2006 after becoming their owner. He came in after the club fell into administration and created Wrexham FC 2006 Ltd, trading as Wrexham Football Club. The word ‘Association’ was in the club’s name since 1912.
Wrexham AFC badge
Wrexham’s current club badge has now been in place since 1973 after a local newspaper ran a design competition. It invited supporters to submit proposals for the Red Dragons’ badge to mark the club’s centenary. Yet it was later recognised that Wrexham were formed in 1864.
The winning badge features three prominent segments with the upper section displaying the feathers of the Prince of Wales. Below the green area sit two lions on a white background to represent Wales. While the base of their badge features the club’s name and founding year.
Wrexham used a gold and black version of their badge to mark the club’s 150th anniversary, as well, in 2014. While it was not until the 1960s that the Red Dragons first incorporated the club’s crest on their kits. Even though they had adopted a badge from the team’s formation.
As Wrexham Football and Athletic Club, they adopted the Wrexham borough coat of arms from the 1850s as their first badge. The coat of arms featured croziers to represent grazing on the land around Wrexham and Wrexham Abbott and remained the club’s crest to 1973.
Kit history
A bright red kit has become synonymous with Wrexham AFC through the club’s more recent history. But the side actually started off in red and black hooped jerseys before embracing a blue and white striped shirt. They would change their colours after being reformed in 1886.
White and blue plus yellow and blue kits also featured for a spell at the Racecourse Ground before Wrexham embraced green in 1904. Their first all-red shirt then appeared in 1921 but was quickly ousted in favour of blue in 1925. Yet red kits returned in 1939 and have stayed.
League history
Wrexham AFC did not enter a league competition until the 14th season in the club’s history of organised football. They had started by playing in the Welsh Cup in 1877/78 before then entering the FA Cup in 1883/84. A first league campaign would then later follow in 1890/91.
The Red Dragons entered the Football Combination League for their first season of division action. But the club only remained in the league until 1894 when they moved to the Welsh League to save money. Yet Wrexham swiftly returned to the Combination League in 1896.
A spell in the Birmingham & District League would also follow from 1905 to 1922. Wrexham finally received permission to enter the division after lifting their fourth Combination League title. While they joined the Third Division North in 1921 after the EFL established a new tier.
Wrexham came close to winning the Third Division North in 32/33 and enjoyed a number of third-place results. But the Red Dragons never earned promotion before suffering relegation to the fourth tier in 1960. A few promotions and another relegation would then follow, too.
Yet the club enjoyed the highs of promotion into Division Two in 1978 and they remained in the division until 1982. But they would follow relegation into Division Three with another fall in the following term. Wrexham did not return to the third tier until the 1993/94 campaign.
The Red Dragons endured another spell as a yo-yo club from 2001/02 to 2007/08 as they bounced between the third and fourth tiers. But relegation from League Two in 2007/08 marked the start of a 15-year absence from the EFL. They would not return until 2023/24.
McElhenney and Reynolds appointed Phil Parkinson as the club’s latest manager after they became the owners of Wrexham. The former Sunderland boss would go on to secure them the National League title in 2022/23. They won the division with 111 points from 46 games.
Parkinson’s side followed up that promotion with two more in successive seasons to take the club up to the second division for the first time 40 years.
Wrexham AFC trophies
Wrexham AFC’s trophy history started in the same season as the club played their first batch of organised games. The Red Dragons won the first of their Welsh Cup titles at the first try in 1877/78. They have since won the tournament a record 23 times, most recently in 1994/95.
A first league title would follow in 1894/95 when Wrexham won the first of their two Welsh League crowns. They lifted the trophy in each of the team’s two seasons in the competition. While Wrexham won the Combination League four times in five seasons from 1900 to 1905.
Yet another league title would not arrive at Wrexham’s doors until 1977/78 when they won the third-tier crown. And they would also have to wait another 45 years for another with the 2022/23 National League trophy. The interim years would also only feature two Welsh Cups.
But Wrexham would add to their trophy cabinet between 1978 and 2023 with the Football League Trophy in 2004/05 and the FA Trophy in 2012/13. The Red Dragons’ trophy cabinet also features one Football League North Cup title from the 1943/44 wartime league season.
Players and managers
As one of the oldest football clubs in Great Britain and the oldest team in Wales, a number of legends litter Wrexham AFC’s history. The Red Dragons have seen a raft of iconic names don their predominately-red jerseys and also help the club enjoy successful spells on the pitch.
Some of the game’s biggest British names have also featured in Wrexham colours, including Wales legend Ian Rush. The iconic striker joined the Red Dragons under Brian Flynn in 1998 after being released by Newcastle United. But the Liverpool hero was verging on retirement.
George Best also played one match for Wrexham in Gareth Davies’ testimonial in 1979. Sir Stanley Matthews, likewise, featured just once for the club during a 5-1 friendly win against Crewe Alexandra during WWII. But Wrexham have seen a number of legends of their own.
Alan Kennedy was already a Liverpool legend having won the European Cup before moving to Wrexham. But he made himself a hero at the Racecourse, as well, by helping them avoid relegation. While Chris Armstrong started at Wrexham and would later play for Tottenham.