The club was founded in Vienna on the 12th of March 1911 by officials and players of the older "Vienna Cricket- and Football-Club" (founded 1894). The first name of the new team was "Wiener Amateur Sportvereinigung". This team was already known for a technical style of playing football. It needed 13 years for the win of the first national championship in 1924. In1926, the club won his second title, the name was changed to "FK AUSTRIA" , because there were no amateurs anymore.
The most famous era of the "Violets" has been during the 30´s. Outstanding players like Sindelar, Sesta, Nausch and so on were known all over the world, many players of the club "Austria" played in the "Wunderteam", which has beaten all European nations. In 1933 and 1936 "Austria" won the "Mitropa-Cup", a competition which had the level of today's "Champions-League".
When the Nazis ruled Austria, "FK Austria" was even more disadvantaged than other teams, because most of the club-officials were Jewish and had to flee. Also many players could not live under dictatorship. Many of them emigrated and the most popular Austrian player ever, Matthias Sindelar, committed suicide.
Dark times finished and the club succeeded again. During the 50´s, English newspapers called midfielder Ernst Ocwirk "the best centerhalf of the world". Together with players like Stojaspal and Stotz, many great European teams were beaten, most outstanding was the 9:2 win against the German champion, 1. FC Kaiserslautern. German legend, Fritz Walter, said after this game:" Such teams like "Austria" don´t need any tactics!"
In 1977 a new sponsor changed the club´s name to "FK Austria Memphis", which is still the official name. The following years had "Ups" and "Downs", many national titles were still won. Because of the development in Austrian football, international successes became rare, triumphs were the EC-final in 1978 and EC-promotions against Inter Milan (1982), CF Barcelona (1983) and Ajax Amsterdam (1989). The last Austrian championship was won in 1993, the last cup in 1994.
Famous players of the 70´s and 80´s were Toni Polster, the
Hungarian Tibor Nylasi and of course Herbert Prohaska.