September 1882: schoolboys from the Hotspur Cricket Club wanted a winter game. Spurs' own legend puts them under a gas lamp on Tottenham High Road.
THE LOWDOWN — THE FULL HISTORY
THE BOYS
September 1882: boys from the Hotspur Cricket Club wanted a winter game. Spurs' own founding legend puts them beneath a gas lamp on Tottenham High Road. Their first captain, Bobby Buckle, was 13.
THE NAME
From Harry Hotspur, a real medieval knight immortalised in Shakespeare's Henry IV; his family, the Percys, had ties to Tottenham. The fighting cockerel came later.
THE RISE
A pitch marked out on public marshland, "Tottenham" added in 1884, and in 1899 a ground behind a pub: White Hart Lane.
1901
FA Cup winners as a Southern League club. No club from outside the Football League has won it since.
THE NEIGHBOURS
In 1887 they met Royal Arsenal, 2–1 up when darkness stopped the game. In 1913, those opponents moved in next door.
MORE FROM FOUNDED
THE TERRACES — DISCUSSION
The argument also lives in the YouTube comments ↗.