Shooting Stars

The Brief and Glorious History of Blackburn Olympic

Author: Graham Phythian

ISBN: 978-1-899468-83-6

Price  £12 (plus £1.50 p&p)

132 page paperback, 189 x 246mm

Blackburn Olympic were the first Northern club to win the FA Cup.  They were also the first working-mans club to break the monopoly of wins by the amateur old boys clubs from the London area.

            Benefiting from extensive and up-to-date research, as well as input from descendants of the 1883 Cup Finalists, this book is a detailed and readable factual account of the ground-breaking, if short-lived, club.  Discover:

        the founding of the club in a back-street Blackburn coffee shop;

        the battle for supremacy in the town and beyond;

        the two giant-killing FA Cup runs;

        the increasingly fierce (and occasionally sinister) struggle for survival with arch-rivals Rovers.

There are over 60 illustrations, many of which have never before been published.  They included pictures of players, medals, trophies and a rare match programme from the 1880’s.  Every result and date of games played is detailed in an Appendix.  The author describes how football developed in the Blackburn area and includes a map showing where each club played.