Brighton Football Club was an Australian rules football club which played in the VFA. The club was based in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton and were nicknamed the Penguins. They wore maroon and gold guernseys before the club moved to Caulfield and later became the Caulfield Bears in the early to mid-1960s, previously wearing red and white.
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The club is believed to have been formed in 1885 and seven years later became a foundation member of the Metropolitan Junior Football Association. They won a premiership in 1903 during their sixteen years in the league and in 1908 joined the VFA as one of the teams to replace Richmond, who had shifted to the VFL, and West Melbourne, who had merged with North Melbourne in a failed attempt to do the same.
Brighton first played finals football in 1926 with help from former Fitzroy player Gordon Rattray who coached the club. They made it all the way to the grand final before losing to Coburg, the club that would beat them again in the grand final the following season. They were runner-up in 1938 but went on to claim the premiership in 1948.
In 1948, under the coaching of Col Williamson, they had finished the home and away season in third place and after defeating Brunswick in the preliminary final they qualified for the decider against Williamstown, whom they downed by nine points.
The club struggled throughout the 1950s and lost occupancy of their home ground at Elsternwick Park just before the 1962 season was to begin. As a result they were forced to relocate to Caulfield and merged with a local club called South Caulfield. They competed under the name of Brighton-Caulfield from 1962. In 1965 the word 'Brighton' was removed from the club's name after pressure from the Caulfield Council and replaced their Penguin emblem with that of a Bear.
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