Torino FC was founded on 3 December 1906 in Turin by Swiss businessman Alfred Dick, who had previously been involved with Juventus. The club's colours became a shade of dark red known in Italian as "granata," and its rivalry with Juventus grew into one of Italy's most recognisable derbies, the Derby della Mole.
Torino play their home matches at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, a venue known for many years as the Stadio Comunale before being renamed in 2006 in honour of the club's legendary team.
In Serie A history, Torino have won seven Italian championships, five of them between 1943 and 1949 (with league play suspended during the war) under the legendary side known as the Grande Torino. Led by captain Valentino Mazzola, that team is regarded as one of the strongest in Italian football history and formed the backbone of the national team of the era. On 4 May 1949, almost the entire squad died in a plane crash on the Superga hill near Turin while returning from a friendly match against Benfica in Lisbon. The tragedy remains permanently woven into the history of the club and of Italian football as a whole, with the anniversary still marked by Torino supporters.
The club has also won the Coppa Italia five times. In Europe, Torino claimed the Mitropa Cup in 1991, and the following year, under coach Emiliano Mondonico, reached the UEFA Cup final, losing to Ajax on the away-goals rule.
Since 2005, the club has been owned by media publisher Urbano Cairo. Torino remain one of the clubs with the richest tradition in northern Italy, and the memory of the Grande Torino continues to shape the identity of both the supporters and the city.