After 30 years in hibernation the re-established Old Harrovian Association Football Club took the field on Saturday 5th October 1963 at Snakes Lane East, Woodford for a friendly v Lancing Old Boys 2nd XI, winning 4-2. The original club was founded in 1859 but disbanded following Harrow’s decision in 1927 to replace association football with rugby as the School’s principal winter sport.

Such was the level of enthusiasm amongst 1962 and 1963 leavers for kicking a round ball for the first time in five years that the Club attracted subsequent generations and rapidly gained momentum. An inaugural Easter Tour to Etretat, France in 1964 and the first OHAFC Dinner in 1968 confirmed the importance of an ambassadorial and social side to the Club’s activities which continues to flourish today. Overseas tours and Club Dinners have featured prominently over the past 60 years.

Efforts to secure a home ground were rewarded when John Lyon School permitted the Club use of its facilities on Sudbury Hill for the 1964/65 season. The pitch was narrow, sloping and normally waterlogged and the Secretary became familiar with the groundsman’s depressing Friday evening telephone message: “You’ll never get on it, Mister.” Despite these difficulties, JLS would be home until 1975 following which around a dozen different venues were needed before the Club secured a permanent home on the Philathletic Ground from 2001. Today the Charles Alcock Pavilion and the two magnificent grass pitches on the Phil are the envy of visiting teams.

Over the years, all four of the Club’s teams have put silverware on the shelf, most notably the prestigious Arthur Dunn Cup in 2007 which had eluded Old Harrovians since the competition was founded in 1902.

The one constant over the past 60 years, generation after generation, has been the fun and lasting friendships which have developed amongst those who play regularly. Given a committed group of enthusiastic Club officers and with Harrow now a 2-term soccer school resulting in over 40 leavers joining the OHAFC each year, a prosperous future can be expected.