In year 1945, a group of football enthusiasts from the distinct of Tampines got to play football and decided to play football and decided to organise themselves into a football club.

While many names for the football club came and went, the club members eventually settled for "Tampines Rovers" as the final & official club name. Hence, Tampines Rovers Football Club was born.

In 1954, Tampines Rovers debuted in Division 3A of the Singapore Amateur Football Association. The pioneers of the first team included George Pasqual, Edmund Perera, Basil De Souza and Justin Morais.

Tampines Rovers had the legendary Quah brothers - Quah Kim Lye and Kim Song(who later became the club's Chairman, currently Chairman of the S-League), other big names included R.Suriamurthy and Rahmat Mawar, who propelled the club to the runners-up of the PCL.

In 1980 national players Lim Tien Jit, Jai Prakash, Zainol Aibidin & Selvarajan, Tampines Rovers defended the NFL Division 1 title.

In 1985, the club tasted the sweet of success of winning the NFL Division 1 champion once again with the added talents in players such as T.Pathmanathan, V. Sundramoorthy and foreign players like Graham Gourley and Simon Kent.

In the same year came about S-League, Rovers joined as one of the pioneer teams and put up credible showing from 1996 to 1998.

Former Yugoslavia U-18 captain Sead Muratovic joined the squad and was joined by former Singapore International, Lee Man Hon.

In year 2001, Chow Kwai Lam was appointed as the coach and he spurred the Stags to the Singapore Cup Champions. In the same year, Kyrgyztan International Zakir Djalilov, made his debut for Tampines Rovers.

2002 saw talents such as George Goutzioulis, Tan Kim Leng and captain Nazri Nasir becoming part of the squad.

Local soccer talents, Noh Alam Shah and Sasikumar stepped on the pitch for the Stags in year 2003.

Former Singapore Internationals such as Mirko Grabovac, Rezal Hassan, Rafi Ali, Steven Tan joined the talent-packed club in year 2004.