17 June 1902 - The Canaries Take Flight

On 17 June 1902, a group of players split from their previous club and founded Norwich City. The new club went on to become two-time League Cup champions and a founding member of the Premier League.

The club's founders originally played for Norwich Church of England Young Men's Society, established in 1888. But in 1902, the team captain and vice-captain left the club over what they perceived to be a lack of ambition. They gathered a group of friends at the Criterion Cafe on 17 June to form Norwich City and played their first competitive match the following September.

They played as amateurs for the first two years, then turned professional in 1904 after being expelled from amateur competitions after making payments to players. They joined the Football League's Third Division (South) in 1921 and were promoted to Division Two in 1934. They spent the next several years moving back and forth between the two levels, but during that time, they won the 1962 League Cup over Rochdale.

In 1972, Norwich reached the top tier for the first time, though they remained there for only two seasons before dropping back down to the Second Division. They then fluctuated between the top two levels--and winning another League Cup in 1985--before becoming one of the founding Premier League clubs in 1992.

They returned to the Premier League in 2011 after a six-year absence and finished comfortably in twelfth.