Lincoln City F.C.
association football club in Lincoln, England
Lincoln City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. The club competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football, following promotion from EFL League One.
Nicknamed the "Imps" after the legend of the Lincoln Imp, they have played at 11,400-capacity Sincil Bank since their move from John O'Gaunts in 1895. Traditionally they play in red and white striped shirts with black shorts and red and white socks. They hold rivalries with other Lincolnshire clubs, particularly Scunthorpe United and Grimsby Town. Founded in 1884, Lincoln won the Midland League in 1889–90, their first full season playing league football. They moved on from the Football Alliance to become founder members of the Football League Second Division in 1892, remaining there until they failed re-election in 1908. They won immediate re-election after winning the next year's Midland League, and would repeat this feat after failing re-election again in 1911 and 1920. Founder members of the Football League Third Division North in 1921, they won promotion as champions in 1931–32, but were relegated two seasons later. Crowned Third Division North champions again in 1947–48, they were relegated the next year, but would remain in the second tier for nine seasons after again winning the Third Division North title in 1951–52.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lincoln City F.C.” is association football club in Lincoln, England. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lincoln, City and association, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “association football club in Lincoln, England” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18519. VIAF identifies the subject as 149395416. The Library of Congress control number is nr2005004389. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1895, 1884, 1889 and 1892.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Lincoln City F.C. primary sources, Lincoln City F.C. archive and Lincoln research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Lincoln City F.C.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.