The Essendon Football club is one of the biggest and most successful  clubs in Australian sport.

Essendon is recognised for its on-field success, its stability and its pioneering work in the community, particularly with Indigenous Australians.

Essendon has won 16 League premierships and four Association premierships. No other League club has won more.

The club’s 50,000 members put it among the most supported sporting clubs in the country. In 2011 attendances at Essendon games exceeded 1,000,000.

Essendon was formed by the McCracken family in 1872 or 1873, the exact date is unknown. The club’s first recorded game was in June 1873 against a Carlton side.

The club joined the new VFA in 1878 and in 1897 Essendon was one of eight clubs that left the VFA to form the new Victorian Football League, now called the Australian Football League.

Essendon moved to the Essendon Recreation Reserve, later known as Windy Hill, in 1922 and played home games at the ground 1991.For 90 years Windy Hill has been the club’s training and administration base and its spiritual home. The club is building a new administration and training base at Tullamarine and will move there in 2013. 

The club has 23 Hall of Fame Legends. These Legends comprise players, coaches and administrators who have made an outstanding contribution to the club. Among them are legends of both Essendon and the game and include Dick Reynolds, John Coleman, Bill Hutchison, Simon Madden and James Hird.