Newcastle United FC was founded in 1892 after a merger between two clubs, Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End. The 2 clubs changed their name to the appropriate name Newcastle United, and they played their home games at West End's pitch, St James' Park. The clubs changed their red shirts to black and white vertical stripes, a tradition which is still going today. They entered the Football League a year later. In 1898, they were runners up in the Second Division and got promoted into the First Division.

Newcastle were the cup kings in the Fifties with 3 cup wins. The first was in 1951 against Stanley Matthews Blackpool, one year later against Arsenal and in 1955 against Manchester City in a 3-1 romp. But the departers of star players saw Newcastle fall back into Division 2. The directers called back Joe Harvey to be manager and they won the 2nd Division 4 years later. They qualified for Europe in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (now the UEFA Cup) and suprised everyone by beating Ujpest Dozsa of Hungary in the final, 6-2 on aggeragete. Their star players were Wyn Davies of Wales, Bryan "Pop" Robson and Bobby Moncur.

In the years that followed, Harvey strengthened his squad with players like Terry Hibbet, Jimmy Smith and the star purchase of Malcom Macdonald (or Supermac as he was called on Tyneside). Macdonald was one of Newcastle's all time legends, scoring goals from all over the pitch. He helped Newcastle to Wembley in 1974 for the FA Cup final against Liverpool and the 1976 League Cup final against Manchester City. Newcastle lost both games, but they won the Anglo Italian Cup in 1973 and the Texaco Cup in 1974 and '75. Harvey left in 1975, replaced by Gordon Lee. He sold Macdonald to Arsenal and left 2 years later. Richard Dinnis took over in 1977 and they got relegated in '78 under Bill McGarry.

Arthur Cox was Newcastle's savior in 1980 and took Newcastle up to the First Division. He amazingly brought Kevin Keegan to St James' Park in 1982 and brought up youngsters Peter Beardsley and Chris Waddle as well as Terry McDermott, Keegan's sidekick from Liverpool, and David McCreevy. Cox left in 1984 to be replaced by World Cup winner Jack Charlton. He sold he best players to get money. Beardsley, Waddle, and the new kid Paul Gascoinge all left. The Magpies tumbled back into Division 2. The crowds got smaller, they were running out of money and players left here, there and everywhere.

Newcastle needed a savior in 1992 with the club on the brink of relegation to Division 3 for the first time in their history. Sir John Hall took control of the club and his first duty was to bring Kevin Keegan back to the club as manager. The crowds flocked back to St James' and Newcastle survived the drop. The Magpies got promoted to the newly created FA Premier League after winning the First Division title by a mile, thanks to many new faces such as Andy Cole, Rob Lee and Barry Venison. Newcastle finished 2nd in the league in 1996 and 1997 with great financial backing from Sir John. New players included Les Ferdinand, David Ginola and of course, Alan Shearer for £15m (a world record at the time) in 1996. Keegan suddenly left in 1997 and Kenny Dalglish took over. He sold most of the best players and Newcastle slumped the 13th. They also lost the FA Cup final to Arsenal. The Champions League was a sucess though even though Newcastle went out in the group stages, they beat Barcelona 3-2 at St James' with Faustino Asprilla scoring a hat-trick. Ruud Gullit took over in 1998 and they finished 13th again and lost another cup final to treble winners Manchester United. Gullit was sacked in September 1999 with Newcastle bottom of the league.