The club was named by ex-pupils of the English High School of Rosario in homage to its director and football coach, English immigrant Isaac Newell. Newell's Old Boys has an historic rivalry with Rosario Central, the other club from Rosario.The team colors are black and red, taken from the flags of Great Britain and Germany (Isaac Newell being British and his wife German), and the team is often referred to as leprosos (lepers) because they promoted a charity match to raise funds for a leprosy clinic back in the 1920s.
