A History of Amateur Football in Oxford Part 1

It is perhaps unusual that professional football came late to Oxford – with no team playing professionally in the city until 1949 – while geographically and culturally similar towns such as Reading and Swindon had professional teams from the mid-1890s. The lack of a professional outfit in Oxford disguises the fact that football was every bit as important and popular in the city during this time as it was in those neighbouring towns. However, whereas professionalism became an accepted part of football in much of the rest of Britain from the late 19^th century, in Oxford the traditional values of amateurism proved to be far more deep-seated.