A look at the history of Town & Gown football.

Join us on Tuesday 4th March for our Town v Gown match HERE.

The idea of Town and Gown in Oxford is over a thousand years old. The exact date when the University formed is lost in time but there was definitely some sort of teaching structure in place by 1096 - making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest university in continuous operation after Bologna (1088).

The townsfolk co-existed perfectly happily alongside the academics and both parts of the city prospered but then in 1209 Town and Gown became Town v Gown- a vital difference.

By then the colleges were formal, religious halls and when two clerks at one of the halls were hanged by the townsmen (allegedly when they were innocent) Oxford turned violent.

Some scholars fled for their lives, setting up Cambridge University as a safe haven.

Papal intervention came in 1214 when the Pope ruled that the University needed to be better organised and have a recognised leader: the Chancellor.

However the University’s papal powers did not appease the people living in the town and an uneasy coexistence eventually came to a head on St Scholastica's Day, 1355.

It began with a brawl at the Swyndelstock tavern at Carfax, where two scholars, Walter Spryngeheuse and Roger de Chesterfield, objected to the wine they were served and threw it at the Landlord John Croidon. Croidon complained to the Mayor and when the bailiffs' tried to arrest Spryngehouse and de Chesterfield 200 students protected their classmates.

A child of 14 died in the riot that followed and the next day 2,000 men from across the county came in to join the brawl.

Nearly twenty college halls were burnt down and over 60 scholars killed. The University demanded reparations and on every subsequent St Scholastica's Day (10th February) 63 citizens, including the Mayor, were obliged to attend Mass at the University Church of St Mary, and to pay a penny each in penance. Incredibly, this continued for 500 years, until 1825.

The town centre changed as a result. Student halls sprang up and scholars lived at their place of study rather than lodging with families. Walls sprang up between Town and Gown - bricks and mortar boards if you like - and inevitably any sporting events between the two led to problems and disputes.

Town versus Gown battles became a Bonfire night tradition, while the start of each academic year became a flashpoint. So much so that in November 1867 military intervention became necessary.

The Daily Telegraph wrote at the time: "Oxford has suburbs, like the one nicknamed 'Jericho', containing plenty of rough bargees and railway labourers glad to 'lick a lord', and the young and hot blood of the students regards it as an equal luxury to thrash a cad."

Oxford's bargemen rarely escaped accusation by the way, and in the many Oxford novels which include a 'Town and Gown' confrontation, they are often singled out as instigators.

The historian Hastings Rashdall said in 1936: "There is probably not a single yard in any part of the classic High Street between St Martin's and St Mary's which has not, at one time or another, been stained with blood. There are historic battlefields where less has been spilt."

And if you think it’s ancient history, think again. Until the 20th century, the Chancellor of the University had the legal right to trial over townsfolk and it was as late as 1974 that the University lost the right to place its own representatives on the Oxford City Council.

How does football fit in with all this historic confrontation?

Well football flourished on both sides while the game was becoming increasingly huge and correspondingly professional at the end of the nineteenth century.

The University were FA Cup winners in 1874 having been runners up the previous year. They were then semi-finalists for the next two years and runners up again in 1877 and 1880.

City, the oldest club in Oxford, formed in 1882 and although the clubs competed in very different leagues, friendlies against the University became increasingly regular until WW1 but then post WWII another University side, Pegasus took the spotlight.

Pegasus was an Oxford based team, composed of Oxbridge students, that from 1948 to 1963 enjoyed huge success. The club used Iffley Road for its home matches and players had to be current Oxford or Cambridge University players or to have left the previous year.

In the postwar years, Oxbridge students included many men demobilised from service and they became quite a force, winning the FA Amateur Cup at Wembley in 1951 when they beat City at the White Horse Ground 3-0 in the quarter final.

They won the competition again in 1953, in front of 100,000 spectators. In 1954, Pegasus supplied seven members of the England amateur international team.

Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison coached them but changes in university culture in the 1960s and defections to Corinthian-Casuals undermined its ethos and the club folded in 1963, leaving the University side to grow again while City found their own history being overtaken as the other Oxford side, United, entered the Football League.

Games between Hoops and the Dark Blues resumed and during the seventies and eighties they became an almost annual, if informal, event with City often playing the students as a warm up game for the Varsity match against Cambridge.

Andy Sinnott, now City Chairman, made his debut in 1973 and vividly recalls playing in Town v Gown games in that decade.

“Definitely. We used to look forward to them” he says.” They were always really competitive and often the students were playing for a place in the Varsity game itself so they would be doing all they could to impress the Manager. It was always close and I’d say honours were even over the years”.

In the 1980s the University team boasted Rhodes Scholar Ceri Evans at centre half.

The watching Maurice Evans, no relation, spotted his potential in a Town v Gown game and Ceri went on to play over 100 games in the Football League with Oxford United.

More recently TV Sports presenter and Strictly star Chris Hollins played for the University against City at Court Place Farm, with dad John, a Chelsea legend in the stand to watch it.

Perhaps the strongest link remains Mickey Lewis, a legend of Town AND Gown and a man who still unites football in Oxford. Mickey had the distinction of playing for Oxford United and coaching both City and the University side for many years.

Friendlies between the two sides once again became regular events pre Covid and in 2025 a new era has begun.

City now work in partnership with the University of Oxford; players take part in regular lectures on a new course designed and delivered by the University.

On March 4th friendship off the pitch turns to a renewed rivalry on it as Oxford City take on Oxford University once more.

You can get your tickets HERE.