The club was formed in 1895 from Newcastle West End and Newcastle East End, who played at Heaton junction. Between 1904 and 1911, United were league champions three times, reached the cup final five times and won it in 1910. Ulsterman Bill McCracken, who lived until 1979, was the Newcastle defender of those days who invented the notorious offside trap. Colin Veitch, the club captain was an articulate, many-sided man who played in four different positions for the team in the five cup finals. In all, he spent 27 years with the club and also played a part in the nascent players' union. In addition, he was a member of the Veitch family of actors who established the People's Theatre in 1911.
The Newcastle championship-winning forward line of 1927, all five of them, averaged 5 feet 6 inches in height. So much for power in the air. It included Hughie Gallacher, who scored 36 league goals that season and began the mystique of the No. 9 shirt at Newcastle. He was one of the famous 'Wembley Wizards' who routed England 5-1 on their home ground. A popular chant, sung to the tune of 'John Peel' ran:

D'ye ken Hughie Gallacher, the Wee Scotch lad
The best centre-forward Newcastle ever had?
If he doesn't score a goal
We'll put him on the dole
And send him back to Scotland in the morning.

Hughie Gallacher scored 143 goals in 174 games for Newcastle, 463 in 624 overall. He returned to Newcastle in 1930, after his transfer to Chelsea, and attracted a 68,586 crowd. Gallacher's career, however, was clouded by controversy and misfortune. He came back to Newcastle after his footballing days were over, giving occasional tips to Jackie Milburn (q.v.) until in 1957 he deliberately walked in front of a train in Gateshead.
Another prolific No. 9 was Albert Stubbins (q.v.), who played during World War II and with Milburn after it. Stubbins scored an incredible 245 wartime goals and once hit four hat-tricks in succession. He was capped for England in 1945. To make way for Milburn, Stubbins was eventually transferred to Liverpool, and an unusual subsequent accolade was his appearance on the record sleeve of the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper.
Stan Seymour, as a director from 1938, sought out local talent like Charlie Wayman (Chilton Colliery) and Ernie Taylor (Sunderland) among many others - and of course, the best of them all, in his opinion, Jackie Milburn. Newcastle United won the F.A. Cup three times in the 1950s, but since then success has eluded them. Their last league championship was in 1927, and as a consequence considerable expectation was raised by the high-profile side of the 1990s, twice thrilling runners-up to the great Manchester United team.