Tottenham Hotspur Football Club

was founded on 5 September 1882 by a group of school boys, led by 13-year-old Bobby Buckle. The club was initially an extension of the Hotspur Cricket Club, providing a sport for boys in the winter months. It cost 6 pence to join.

In 1889 the club began playing at a field beside the White Hart pub, where players would get changed and a have a drink after the game (Bobby would have been 19 by now...)

The club’s name, "Hotspur," was inspired by Sir Henry Percy, or “Harry Hotspur,” a 14th-century knight known for his fearless and impulsive nature. Percy was the eldest son of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, and his family had a long history of land ownership in parts of North London, including areas around Tottenham. The Earls of Northumberland appear to be name-checked in the Domesday Book in the Tottenham area. This legacy continues today through Percy House, a building in Tottenham now home to the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, built in the early 1740s by Sir Hugh Smithson, who inherited the Percy estates.

Harry Hotspur earned his nickname from his habit of using spurs to drive his horse forward into battle. Known for his military exploits, he led forces against the Scots in border skirmishes and fought in the Hundred Years’ War against France. He ultimately died at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, after rebelling against King Henry IV.

When he wasn't fighting, he liked to unwind by watching cockfighting, where yet more spurs were involved—the birds were fitted with them before the fight.

As Tottenham Hotspur Football Club grew, the club adopted the cockerel as its emblem. In 1909, former player William James Scott commissioned a bronze cockerel standing on a football, which was installed atop the West Stand, symbolising the club’s fighting spirit. This cockerel became iconic, appearing on team kits and in the club’s official crest. On top of that, a famous “Cockerel Clock” stood outside the stadium for most of the 20th century, serving as a well-known landmark for fans. Recently, it was refurbished and remounted on a lamp post at the exact spot where Bobby Buckle and his friends are said to have founded the club in 1882.

Tottenham did, a bit bizarrely, switch to a very different crest between 1997 and 1999. This badge featured seven trees, representing the famous Seven Sisters, a story about a woodland near Tottenham marked by seven elms encircling an ancient walnut tree. The crest also depicted Bruce Castle, a 16th-century manor house located nearby, built on land once owned by the family of Robert the Bruce, the Scottish freedom fighter. Surprisingly, the Bruce family were significant landowners in the area long before the battles for Scottish independence, which doesn't seem very “Scottish.” You never looked at William Wallace and wondered about his London property portfolio.

As the area around Tottenham developed during the Industrial Revolution, it became home to a Jewish community. From the early 20th century, Eastern European Jews fleeing persecution settled in Tottenham. Jewish-owned businesses such as Lebus Furniture, Gestetner duplicating machines, Eagle Pencil (later Berol), and Flateau Shoes became local employers. For many Jewish immigrants and their descendants, supporting Tottenham Hotspur became a way of integrating into British society and building a sense of belonging. Football historian Anthony Clavane describes this process, noting that football created “a space where ethnic identity has connected, even become intertwined, with national identity.”

While Tottenham has produced or attracted many famous players—including Gary Lineker, Gareth Bale, and Harry Kane—perhaps the most remarkable and pioneering was Walter Tull. A mixed-race player in an era of deep-rooted discrimination, Tull joined Spurs in 1909. He was one of the first Black professional footballers in England. But, when the war came, he answered the call and left football to join the British Army. His leadership and courage saw him promoted up from the ranks, becoming the first Black officer in the British Army to lead white troops into battle. Tull was tragically killed in action in 1918 while leading his men across no man’s land. Today, a statue outside his former home in Tottenham honours his life and legacy.

Medieval knights, entrepreneurial schoolboys, migrants fleeing persecution, and the whistle of machine gun bullets in Flanders. Tottenham can tell quite a story, considering the badge is "just" a bird on a ball.

But, I guess, maybe I'm just used to budgies.