The 1962–63 season was Stoke City's 56th season in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

and the 23rd in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. 1963 was also Stoke's centenary year which was celebrated with a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

at the

Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. History ...

against Spanish giants Real Madrid. In the club's centenary year Stoke managed to finally achieve promotion back to the top flight after a ten-year absence. Despite a slow start Stoke went on two fantastic unbeaten runs and although there was a nervy end to the season a

Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while sti ...

inspired 2–0 over

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

in the final home match secured Stoke both promotion to the First Division and the Second Division title.

Season review

League

The 1962–63 season saw Stoke officially celebrate its centenary and the hope from the supporters was that it would be marked by promotion. A failure to win any of their first six matches caused a few grumblings from the fans but a four-goal haul from

Dennis Viollet Dennis Sydney Viollet (20 September 1933 – 6 March 1999) was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and Stoke City as well as the England national team. He was famous as one of the Busby Babes and survived the Munich air disa ...

helped Stoke beat

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

6–3 to set the tone for the season. Keith Bebbington and

Eddie Clamp Harold Edwin Clamp (14 September 1934 – 14 December 1995) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Arsenal, Peterborough United, Stoke City and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Through his career he was renowned for his 'tak ...

joined the club as well as Stoke's first African footballer,

Eddie Stuart Edward Albert Stuart (12 May 1931 – 4 November 2014) was a South African professional footballer who played as a defender. He played 322 times in England for Wolverhampton Wanderers between 1951 and 1962, winning three league titles and the F ...

from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. From late August to 8 December Stoke went 18 matches unbeaten and were now regarded as one of the promotion favourites. The run came to an end away at

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

ten days before Christmas but after winning at

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

on Boxing Day, the season came to a halt as one of the worst winters on record gripped the country. After two months without football Stoke played again on 2 March and easily beat

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

3–0. Just after this match Waddington pulled off another impressive transfer when he signed Northern Ireland and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

striker

Jimmy McIlroy James McIlroy (25 October 1931 – 20 August 2018) was a Northern Ireland international footballer, who played for Glentoran, Burnley, Stoke City and Oldham Athletic. He was regarded as one of Burnley's greatest players, having played 497 matc ...

for £25,000 much to the bewilderment of the Burnley fans who regarded McIlroy as their best player. But his debut for Stoke ended in disaster as Stoke crashed to a 6–0 defeat at

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

. Thankfully for Stoke that awful result was quickly forgotten as they strung together six successive wins and so entered the final run of matches in fine form. A draw at

Roker Park Roker Park was a football ground in Roker, Sunderland, England, which was the home of Sunderland A.F.C. from 1898 to 1997, before the club moved to the Stadium of Light. Its final capacity was around 22,500, with only a small part being seated ...

was quickly followed by victories over Cardiff City and Sunderland at home while a vital point was gain in a thrilling 3–3 draw at

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

. Three straight defeats caused some concern but a 1–0 win at

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

meant that Stoke were within one win of gaining a return to the First Division. And so over 12,000 Stoke fans made the trip to

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

to see them gain promotion at

Gigg Lane Gigg Lane is a football ground in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, built for Bury F.C. in 1885. The first match was played on 12 September 1885 between Bury and a team from Wigan. One of the world's oldest professional football stadiums, G ...

but it did not go well and the "Shakers" certainly stirred things up by winning 2–1 to put the celebrations on hold. For the penultimate match against

at the

a crowd of 33,644 turned up to see if Stoke could gain promotion. Jackie Mudie gave Stoke the lead and then

sealed the promotion in typical Matthews style as he dribbled around Town 'keeper Ron Baynham to send the home crowd ecstatic and end ten years in the Second Division. On 24 April 1963 Stoke arranged a friendly with the famous Real Madrid. The match was seen as the celebration for the club's centenary. The match finished 2–2 with

and

scoring for Stoke while

Félix Ruiz Félix Ruiz Gabari (14 July 1940 in Olite – 11 February 1993 in Madrid) was a Spanish footballer. During his career he played for CA Osasuna, Real Madrid and Toluca de Santander. He also earned 4 caps for the Spain national football team ...

and Ferenc Puskás scored for Real.

FA Cup

Stoke lost at the first attempt against

but it was seen as a blessing in disguise by the management as they wanted to concentrate on gaining promotion.

League Cup

After beating Walsall, Stoke lost 3–1 away at Aston Villa.

Final league table

Results

''Stoke's score comes first''

Legend

Football League Second Division

FA Cup

League Cup

Friendlies

Squad statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1962-63 Stoke City F.C. season Stoke City F.C. seasons

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...