Never was it more evident than in 1960 when Burnley were crowned Football League Champions for the second time in the club's history. The championship winning season saw only three players feature who had been signed from other clubs, and none had played for other Football League clubs.
The club have emphasised recently that the emphasis is very much on youth and bringing players through the system into the first team.
Burnley Football Club officially recognises that the first players to come through the youth system to the first team were Tommy Lawton and Ken Ashbridge in the 1935/36 season.
This feature will show all those from 1936 to the current date who have graduated through the youth system at Burnley Football Club and gone on to play for the first team.
Below are numbers 1 to 25 and players who debuted for the first team from 1936 to 1955
| No | Name | Debut | Date | League | Cups | Total | |||||
| Apps | Gls | Apps | Gls | Apps | Gls | ||||||
| 1 | Tommy Lawton | Doncaster (h) | 28/03/1936 | 25 | 16 | - | - | 25 | 16 | ||
| 2 | Ken Ashbridge | Manchester Utd (a) | 13/04/1936 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 1 | - | ||
| 3 | Len Martindale | Swansea Town (h) | 30/10/1937 | 69 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 73 | 2 | ||
| 4 | Fred Taylor | Norwich (h) | 06/11/1937 | 49 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 50 | 7 | ||
| 5 | George Bray | Luton (h) | 01/10/1938 | 241 | 8 | 18 | 1 | 259 | 9 | ||
| 6 | George Knight | Millwall (h) | 25/02/1939 | 9 | 2 | - | - | 9 | 2 | ||
| 7 | Peter Kippax | Stoke (a) | 05/01/1946 | 32 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 43 | 7 | ||
| 8 | Harold Mather | Stoke (a) | 05/01/1946 | 301 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 329 | 0 | ||
| 9 | Harry Potts | Coventry (h) | 31/08/1946 | 165 | 47 | 16 | 3 | 181 | 50 | ||
| 10 | Harold Spencer | Coventry (h) | 31/08/1946 | 4 | 1 | - | - | 4 | 1 | ||
| 11 | Harold Rudman | Barnsley (a) | 16/09/1946 | 71 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 75 | 0 | ||
| 12 | Jack Knight | Chesterfield (h) | 05/04/1947 | 26 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 27 | 5 | ||
| 13 | Tommy Cummings | Manchester City (a) | 18/12/1948 | 434 | 3 | 45 | 0 | 479 | 3 | ||
| 14 | Tommy Henderson | Stoke (a) | 12/09/1949 | 2 | 0 | - | - | 2 | 0 | ||
| 15 | Roy Stephenson | Liverpool (a) | 10/04/1950 | 78 | 27 | 2 | 1 | 80 | 28 | ||
| 16 | Jimmy Adamson | Bolton (a) | 10/02/1951 | 426 | 17 | 60 | 1 | 486 | 18 | ||
| 17 | Tony Hapgood | Middlesbrough (a) | 01/09/1951 | 7 | 2 | - | - | 7 | 2 | ||
| 18 | Albert Cheesebrough | Manchester Utd (h) | 11/04/1952 | 142 | 35 | 16 | 5 | 158 | 40 | ||
| 19 | Brian Pilkington | Tottenham (a) | 27/09/1952 | 300 | 67 | 40 | 10 | 340 | 77 | ||
| 20 | Doug Winton | Wolves (h) | 29/11/1952 | 183 | 1 | 15 | 0 | 198 | 1 | ||
| 21 | David Cargill | Tottenham (a) | 16/09/1953 | 5 | 0 | - | - | 5 | 0 | ||
| 22 | Bobby Seith | Manchester Utd (a) | 03/10/1953 | 211 | 6 | 27 | 0 | 238 | 6 | ||
| 23 | Colin McDonald | Aston Villa (a) | 10/04/1954 | 186 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 201 | 0 | ||
| 24 | Jimmy Scott | Manchester Utd (a) | 05/03/1955 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | ||
| 25 | David Smith | Tottenham (h) | 16/04/1955 | 99 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 108 | 1 | ||