Founding Eras

Lore & Background

The Cubs began in 1870 as the Chicago White Stockings, playing their home games at West Side Grounds. Six years later, they joined the National League as a charter member. Owner William Hulbert signed star players such as pitcher Albert Spalding and infielders Ross Barnes, Deacon White, and Adrian 'Cap' Anson. The White Stockings won the first National League pennant in 1876.

After back-to-back pennants in 1880 and 1881, Hulbert died, and Spalding assumed ownership. The White Stockings, with Anson acting as player-manager, captured their third consecutive pennant in 1882, and Anson established himself as the game's first true superstar. In 1885 and 1886, after winning NL pennants, the White Stockings met the champions of the American Association in that era's version of a World Series; both seasons resulted in matchups with the St. Louis Brown Stockings, with the clubs tying in 1885 and St. Louis winning in 1886.

In all, the Anson-led Chicago Base Ball Club won six National League pennants between 1876 and 1886. By 1890, the team had become known as the Chicago Colts, or sometimes 'Anson's Colts'. Anson was the first player in history credited with 3,000 career hits. In 1897, after a disappointing record of 59–73 and a ninth-place finish, Anson was released, leading local newspaper reporters to refer to the Colts as the 'Orphans'.

After the 1900 season, the American Base-Ball League formed; the club's old White Stockings nickname was adopted by a new American League neighbor to the south. In 1902, Spalding sold the club to Jim Hart. Referencing the youth of the team's roster, the Chicago Daily News called the franchise the Cubs in 1902; it officially took the name five years later. During the dead-ball era, Cub infielders Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance were made famous as a double-play combination by Franklin P. Adams' poem 'Baseball's Sad Lexicon'.

With Chance acting as player-manager from 1905 to 1912, the Cubs won four pennants and two World Series titles over a five-year span. Although they fell to the White Sox in the 1906 World Series, the Cubs recorded a record 116 victories and the best winning percentage (.763) in major league history. Chicago won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908, becoming the first major league club to play three times in the Fall Classic and the first to win it twice.

Reader's Guide

The Cubs are known as 'the North Siders', a reference to the location of Wrigley Field within the city of Chicago, and in contrast to the White Sox, whose home field (Rate Field) is located on the South Side. Through 2024, the franchise has played the most games in MLB history. Since the start of divisional play in 1969, the Cubs have appeared in the postseason 12 times through the 2025 season. Most recently, the Cubs won the 2016 National League Championship Series and 2016 World Series, which ended a 71-year National League pennant drought and a 108-year World Series championship drought, both of which are record droughts in Major League Baseball. The 108-year drought was also the longest such occurrence in all major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.

Did You Know?

• The Cubs are the only franchise to have played continuously in the same city since the formation of the National League in 1876.
• Cap Anson led the team to National League pennants in 1880, 1881, 1882, 1885, and 1886.
• The 1906 Cubs won 116 games, finishing 116–36 and posting a modern-era record winning percentage of .763.