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| Full name | Rushall Olympic Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | The Pics | ||
| Founded | 1893 | ||
| Ground | Dales Lane, Rushall Walsall (Capacity: tbc) |
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| Chairman | Bob Hubble | ||
| Manager | Paul Holleran | ||
| League | Northern Premier League Division One South |
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| 2008–09 | Northern Premier League Division One South, 5th |
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Rushall Olympic are an English football club based in Rushall, a former mining village now forming part of the northern suburbs of Walsall. They play in the Northern Premier League. They are notable for having sold Zat Knight to Fulham in exchange for 30 Adidas tracksuits. Knight is now a Premiership footballer with Bolton Wanderers and a former England international.
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History
Early years
Although football had been played in the village for at least 20 years previously, the earliest known reference to Rushall Olympic Football Club is in local newspaper reports on matches from the 1893-94 season. The club joined the Cannock & District League in 1895, finishing as runners-up in their first season and later joined the Junior (where they were champions in 1903-04), Amateur, Parks and Senior sections of the Walsall & District League.
During the inter-war years the team won a number of local honours. At this time the team comprised mainly local colliery workers and played on a field behind the Miners Arms pub in Rushall and changed in the pub itself. However, some time prior to World War II the club disbanded.
Post World War II
In 1951, a group of local young men decided to reform the club. They approached the proprietor of a local fish and chip shop for permission to use his premises as their headquarters and secured the use of Rowley Place as a home ground. The club joined the Walsall & District Amateur League, where the team won the Second Division championship in 1952-53, and later the First Division championship in 1955-56, after which they gained promotion to the Staffordshire County League (South) where they won the Second Division title at the first attempt.
Following promotion to the First Division, the club won four championship titles between 1960 and 1965. In 1975, in a bid to gain a higher league status, the club decided to move three miles away to the Aston University Sports Ground, just off the main A34 Walsall to Birmingham road. Meanwhile, the club obtained the lease on some land in Daw End, Rushall, and the new Dales Lane ground was officially opened on Sunday 14 August 1977.
The club were accepted into the West Midlands (Regional) League in 1978, and won the First Division title in 1980. The club enjoyed fourteen seasons of moderate success in the Premier Division, with a highest finish of fifth place achieved in season 1988-89. In 1994 the Pics became founder members of the new Midland Football Alliance. Although the late 90s brought only mid-table performances in the league, the Pics did defeat the then Southern League club Rocester at the Bescot Stadium, home of Walsall in a penalty shoot-out to lift the Walsall Senior Cup in 2000.
After finishing in second place in both 2000-01 and 2002-03, the Pics finally claimed the league title in 2004-05 and with it promotion to the Southern League, the highest level at which the club has ever played.
Players
Current Squad
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Club records
- Best league performance: 5th in Southern Football League Division One Midlands, 2007-08 / 5th in Northern Premier League Division One South, 2008-09
- Best FA Cup performance: 4th Round Qualifying, 2007-08
- Best FA Trophy performance: 3rd qualifying round, 2007-08
- Best FA Vase performance: 5th round, 2000-01
Former players
Zat Knight played for Rushall in 1999 and has now gone on to play Premier League football with Fulham, Aston Villa and Bolton Wanderers, and gained two caps for England.
Sources
- Rushall Olympic at the Football Club History Database
External links
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