The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professional until 1936, and was subsequently elected to join the Football League in 1938. They play their home games at Portman Road in Ipswich. The only fully professional football club in Suffolk, they have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with Norwich City in Norfolk, with whom they have contested the East Anglian derby 138 times since 1902.
Ipswich won the English league title once, in their first season in the top flight in 1961–62, and have twice finished runners-up, in 1980–81 and 1981–82. They won the FA Cup in 1977–78, and the UEFA Cup in 1980–81. They have competed in the top two tiers of English football uninterrupted since 1957–58, currently the longest streak among Championship clubs after Coventry were relegated in the 2011–12 season. They have competed in all three European club competitions, and have never lost at home in European competition, defeating Real Madrid, AC Milan, Internazionale, Lazio and Barcelona, amongst others.
Main article: Ipswich Town F.C. Under-23s and Academy
Ipswich currently runs a Category Two Academy, with a five-year plan to improve to Category One. The academy is run by Bryan Klug. The academy was particularly successful in the 1990s, producing a number of first-team players including Kieron Dyer, Richard Wright and Titus Bramble. In more recent years, the academy has produced more young players going onto the main team including Connor Wickham, Jordan Rhodes, Luke Woolfenden, Flynn Downes and Andre Dozzell, who like his father Jason Dozzell, scored on his debut at the age of 16.