Derby CountyThe 1973 European Cup semi-final gives Derby County its most vivid European memory. After being banned from European competition in 1971 for financial irregularities, the newly crowned English champions entered the tournament in 1972–73 and reached the last four, where they met Juventus. The first leg in Turin ended in a 3–1 defeat, and the tie is still remembered in Derby as controversial, with the manager Brian Clough famously losing his temper over the officiating. It was the club's only European Cup semi-final, and it marked the high point of an era that had changed Derby's place in English football.
That era began in 1967, when Clough arrived as manager together with his assistant Peter Taylor. The team they inherited was 18th in the Second Division in 1968. They signed Alan Hinton, Roy McFarland and John O'Hare, and then the experienced Dave Mackay, and Derby won the Second Division in 1969. After finishing fourth in the First Division in 1970, the club won its first league championship in 1972, on a final day when its rivals Liverpool and Leeds United failed to win their last matches. Clough and Taylor left in October 1973 after disputes with the board and later won two European Cups with Nottingham Forest. Mackay, as manager, led Derby to a second title in 1974–75.
The club's roots are older and more modest. Derby County was founded in 1884 by William Morley as an offshoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club, whose players wanted a winter pastime. The first matches were played at the Racecourse Ground, shared with the cricketers. Derby was a founding member of the Football League and had lost three FA Cup finals around the turn of the century when it finally won the trophy in 1946. In the first post-war final, played at Wembley, it beat Charlton Athletic 4–1, with two goals from Jackie Stamps. The team featured Raich Carter and Peter Doherty, who had both been stationed near Derby during the war. In the 1930s the club was league runner-up twice.
For 102 years, from 1895, the club played at the Baseball Ground, named after an earlier use of the site. It was a compact, close-set stadium, and many supporters still recall its atmosphere with affection. Under Mackay in the mid-1970s Derby also beat Real Madrid 4–1 there in the European Cup. In 1997 the club moved to the Pride Park Stadium, a modern all-seater ground with a capacity of 33,597. The Baseball Ground was demolished six years later, and a memorial was later placed on the site. The change came after promotion to the Premier League in 1996, and Derby finished 12th in its first season there and ninth in its first season at Pride Park.
The team plays in white shirts and is known as the Rams. Its recent history has been less steady. In 2019 it lost the Championship play-off final at Wembley to Aston Villa, and in the years since it has played in the second tier. In June 2022 the stadium was bought by Clowes Developments from the former owner Mel Morris, and the same company remains the owner. For supporters, the achievements of the early 1970s, two league titles and a European semi-final under Clough and Mackay, remain the measure by which every later season is judged.