Plymouth Argyle FC was founded in 1886 as Argyle Football Club, the first match taking place against Dunheved College (now Launceston College) in Launceston where many of the club's first members had been educated. They have played at Home Park, known as the "Theatre of Greens", since 1901. The club takes its nickname, "The Pilgrims", from an English religious group that left Plymouth for the New World in 1620. They may have adopted the name Argyle from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, an army regiment with a strong football side of its own.  A more likely explanation is that the name came from either from the nearby public house, The Argyle Tavern, where the founder members may have met, or the local street named Argyle Terrace. Poor performance on the pitch led to it going out of existence in 1894 before being resurrected in 1897 as one part of a general sports club, the Argyle Athletic Club. The club adopted its current name when it became fully professional in 1903 joining the Southern League. In 1920 Argyle entered the Football League Third Division as a founder member. Uniquely, between 1921-22 and 1926-27, they finished second in the Third Division South six seasons in a row, thereby missing promotion. The closest they ever came to playing in the Football League First Division was in 1952-53, when they reached fourth place in the Football League Second Division, their highest finish to date. In 1984, while still in the Third Division, Argyle reached the FA Cup semi-final where they were narrowly beaten by Watford. Promotion to Division Two followed in 1986 but in 1992 they club was relegated yet again. In 1995 Plymouth dropped into the Third Division (the old Fourth Division), the first time the club had ever been in the lowest division. After winning the Third Division championship in 2002 and then the Second Division in 2004 the club reached the championship, now the second tier of English football. After finishing in the top half of the Championship in 2007, Argyle slipped towards a serious financial crisis. 

Plymout were relegated in 2009 with a transfer embargo in place due to their failure to pay their tax bill. Serious financial turmoil forced the club to sell off their best players and hand over their share of the Football League's broadcast contract to the Inland Revenue to avoid a winding up order. This offered only a temporary respite as the club had already  run up a further £300,000 in unpaid tax and in order to avoid a third winding up order, issued notice of intention to enter administration. This incurred an automatic ten-point penalty and ensured relegation to Second Division, now the bottom tier of English football.  During the next two seasons they narrowly avoided losing their league status finishing 21st on both occasions. Things took a turn for the better during the 2016-17 season when the club returned to the third tier after finishing second,  and again in 2019–20 following relegation the previous season. Plymouth Argyle were crowned League One champions after coming from behind to win at Port Vale on the final day of the 2022-23 season.