Early Football and the NSW Wanderers 1880 A Collective Biography

Football today. Where did it begin, when did it start, who kicked it off, what was their story?

Eighteen young men turned out for the NSW Wanderers in Sydney in 1880. They were the first Association football club to form in Australia. Others in the colonies had played before them. And then there were those who played soon after. Yet it is the Wanderers who hold a special place. Their biographies explain not just the birth of football in the antipodes but the social DNA of its pioneers. Resurrecting memories of those who began the journey puts faces to names and deeds largely forgotten. It highlights the place of forebears in the game.