West Bromwich Albion Football Club - The Baggies
West Bromwich Albion Football Club (also known as West Brom, The Baggies, Albion, The Albion, The Throstles or W.B.A. ) are an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands. The club was formed in 1878 by workers from Salter's Spring Works in West Bromwich, and have played their home games at The Hawthorns since 1900.
One of the founding members of The Football League in 1888 was Albion and have spent the majority of their existence in the top tier of English football. They have been champions of England only once, in 1919–20. They have had more success in the FA Cup, with five wins. The first was in 1888 and the most recent in 1968, their last major trophy. They also won the Football League Cup at the first attempt in 1966. Since the early 1980s the club was not so successful. From 1986 to 2002 they spent their longest ever period out of the top division, although there has been something of a revival in recent years: 2008–09 will be the club's fourth season in the Premier League since 2002.
Colours
West Bromwich Albion have played in navy blue and white striped shirts for the majority of their existence, usually with white shorts and white socks.
Like all football clubs, Albion sport a secondary or "change" strip when playing away from home against a team whose colours clash with their own. A wide variety of different away colours have been worn over the years, but yellow and green striped shirts have been the most common choice since the early 1970s.
Grounds
The first ground of West Bromwich Albion was Coopers Hill, which the club occupied from 1878 to 1879.
From 1879 to 1881 they played additionally at Dartmouth Park. Bunns Field was Albion's third ground, also known as The Birches, where they played for a single season in 1881–82.
The official club mascot is named Baggie Bird , and is based on the throstle depicted on the club crest.
Current squad
| No | Goalkeepers | No | Defenders | No | Midfielders | No | Forwards |
| 1 | Dean Kiely | 26 | Pelé | 32 | David Worrall | 9 | Roman Bednár |
| 19 | Michal Danek (on loan from Viktoria Plzen ) | 23 | Tininho | 27 | James Morrison | 10 | Craig Beattie |
| 31 | Luke Daniels | 18 | Shelton Martis | 29 | Chris Brunt | 15 | Sherjill MacDonald |
| 14 | Martin Albrechtsen | 20 | Filipe Teixeira | 17 | Ishmael Miller | ||
| 16 | Jared Hodgkiss | 12 | Kim Do-Heon | 21 | Kevin Phillips | ||
| 2 | Carl Hoefkens | 7 | Robert Koren | 22 | Stuart Nicholson | ||
| 3 | Paul Robinson | 8 | Jonathan Greening ( captain ) | 24 | Luke Moore | ||
| 4 | Leon Barnett | 30 | Bartosz Slusarski | ||||
| 5 | Neil Clement |
Notable managers
The following managers have all led West Bromwich Albion to at least one of the following achievements whilst in charge of the club: winning a major trophy or reaching the final, achieving a top three league finish in the top flight, winning promotion or reaching the quarter-finals of a major European competition.
| Louis Ford | 1890–92 | FA Cup winners 1892 |
| Edward Stephenson | 1894–95 | FA Cup runners-up 1895 |
| Frank Heaven | 1896–02 | Division Two champions 1901–02 |
| Fred Everiss | 1902–48 | Promotion as Division Two winners 1910–11 , FA Cup runners-up 1912 , 1935 , Division One winners 1919–20 , Division One runners-up 1924–25 , Promotion as Division Two runners-up 1930–31 , FA Cup winners 1931 |
| Jack Smith | 1948–52 | Promotion as Division Two runners-up 1948–49 |
| Vic Buckingham | 1953–59 | Division One runners-up 1953–54 , FA Cup winners 1954 |
| Jimmy Hagan | 1963–67 | League Cup winners 1966 , League Cup runners-up 1967 |
| Alan Ashman | 1967–71 | FA Cup winners 1968 , European Cup Winners Cup quarter-finalists 1968–69 , League Cup runners-up 1970 |
| Johnny Giles | 1975–77 1984–85 |
Promotion from Division Two 1975–76 |
| Ron Atkinson | 1978–81 1987–88 |
Division One 3rd place 1978–79 , UEFA Cup quarter-finalists 1978–79 |
| Osvaldo Ardiles | 1992–93 | Promotion as Division Two play-off winners 1992–93 |
| Gary Megson | 2000–04 | Promotion as Division One runners-up 2001–02 , 2003–04 |
| Tony Mowbray | 2006– | Promotion as Championship winners 2007–08 |
Honours
The Albion team of 1920 display the League Championship trophy and Charity Shield- Football League First Division
(old)
- Champions: 1919–20
- Runners-up: 1924–25 , 1953–54
- Football League Second Division
(old),Division One (modern), Football
League Championship
- Champions: 1901–02 , 1910–11 , 2007–08
- Runners-up: 1930–31 , 1948–49 , 2001–02 , 2003–04
- Division Two (modern)
- Play-off Winners: 1992–93
- FA Cup
- Winners: 1888 , 1892 , 1931 , 1954 , 1968
- Runners-up: 1886 , 1887 , 1895 , 1912 , 1935
- Football League Cup
- Winners: 1966
- Runners-up: 1967 , 1970
- FA Charity Shield
- Winners: 1920, 1954 (shared with Wolves )
- Runners-up: 1931, 1968
- Victories in minor cup competitions
- FA Youth Cup : 1976
- Tennent-Caledonian Cup : 1977
- Birmingham Senior Cup : 1886, 1895, 1988, 1990, 1991
- Staffordshire Senior Cup : 1883, 1886, 1887, 1889, 1900, 1902, 1903, 1924, 1926, 1932, 1933, 1951, 1969 (shared with Stoke City )
- Watney Cup : Runners-up: 1971