Birmingham Excelsior Football Club was an English football club with a claimed foundation date of 1874. History The club emerged from an athletics club founded in 1869, which in turn was related to the Excelsior Works in Birmingham town centre. The club continued to hold athletics meetings, and, in 1877, after a dispute over a three-mile run, a number of club members - including Excelsior player/secretary Thomas Pank, who would soon join Aston Villa - founded the Birchfield Harriers athletic club. Excelsior were early members of the Birmingham Football Association and entered the Birmingham Senior Cup, the leading competition for Midlands clubs, for the first time in 1879-80, losing 8-1 to Aston Villa in the second round. The club's best player was George Tait, who received an England cap while registered with the club, and the Birmingham Daily Post reckoned the team as being "nearly the best in Birmingham". However, Tait died of typhoid in November 1882, and the club never recovered from his loss. Indeed, the club nearly wound up before the start of the 1883-84 season, but fresh organisation and the recruitment of new playing members, bolstered by a first entry into the FA Cup, kept the club going. The club entered the competition every year until qualifying rounds were introduced in 1888-89. The club's only significant trophy success came in the Wednesbury Charity Cup in 1884-85, Excelsior beating Stafford Rangers 6-1 in the semi-final and upsetting Mitchells St George's 5-0 in the final, four of the goals coming in the first half; Jack Devey was one of the Excelsior scorers. 1885-86 saw the club's best performance in the Birmingham Senior Cup, reaching the fourth round (the last six) and only losing to Wolverhampton Wanderers in a second replay, having come from 3-0 down in the original tie. Two weeks later Excelsior easily beat Aston Villa 3-0 away from home. However, the Football Association had recently allowed professionalism. Over the previous seasons, Aston Villa in particular had found ways around the FA's stance, and, as was common with other clubs based in Aston and thereabouts, Excelsior found it difficult to retain its players, or attract attendances - the home FA Cup tie with Derby Midland in 1885-86 attracted just 400 spectators, compared with over 6,000 at Walsall at the same stage. When professionalism was legalised, Villa had had a head start that was impossible for Excelsior to close,