Sturt wear Oxford and Cambridge Blue reflecting the street names on which their home ground is based.

Sturt play their home games at the 15,000 capacity Unley Oval and their club song is named It's a grand old flag.

In 1909, the club was strengthened by a number of interstate players enticed by offers of employment and accommodation and in 1910, Sturt played in their first Grand Final, losing to Port Adelaide.

The competition was suspended during the First World War, being established in 1919 when Sturt faced North Adelaide in the Grand Final.

In a low scoring replay the following week, Sturt kicked its only three goals of the match in the last quarter (the last coming with thirty seconds remaining) to win by five points (23–18) and secure consecutive premierships four years apart.

Sturt won another premiership in 1926 defeating North Adelaide again by 64–51, with Vic Richardson after he was not selected for the 1925 Ashes cricket tour of England.

From 1945 to 1961, despite the efforts of triple Magarey Medalist Len Fitzgerald, Sturt performed poorly, "winning" five wooden spoons and failing to make a Grand Final.

In 1962, former Norwood and South Melbourne player and West Adelaide coach Jack Oatey was appointed coach and began to institute an innovative style of play that would modernise the game and influence the style of football played Australia wide.

Sturt won the 1969 Grand Final beating Glenelg who had included the Richmond star Royce Hart for his only game for the club.

He's a champion isn't he?”[6] Rick Davies dominated the final with 21 kicks, 21 handballs, 21 hit outs and 15 marks, with Sturt winning by 41 points.

In the 1968 Grand Final against Port Adelaide Football Club, Peter Endersbee used the checkside punt to kick two goals in the space of a few minutes turning the game in Sturt's favour.

After Oatey's retirement at the end 1982, Sturt under coaches John Halbert and former Richmond star Mervyn Keane reached the Grand Final of 1983 with a reinvented Davies kicking 151 goals, but fluctuated in the following five years.

Committee dissatisfaction with Keane,[8] however, led to Sturt churning through five coaches and receiving a SANFL record eight consecutive wooden spoons between 1989 and 1996, including a winless season in 1995 when the team actually did not get within four goals of any of its twenty-two opponents.

Sturt, under first-year coach Brenton Phillips, played Central Districts in the 2002 SANFL Grand Final.

Sturt then went on to claim a thrilling one-point win against Port Adelaide in the 2017 Grand Final, achieving the rare back-to-back premiers feat.

The largest attendance at Unley was set in Round 9 of the 1968 season when 22,015 crammed into the oval to see Sturt play long time rivals Port Adelaide.

The unofficial ground record attendance at Unley was set on 9 June 1924 when an estimated 24,000 saw Sturt play Norwood.