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Tigers' history

Discussion in 'Hull City' started by Craigo, Nov 3, 2011.

  1. Craigo

    Craigo Well-Known Member

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    I've been copy and pasting the info available on the internet on HCAFC's history for my own amusement, but the info is fairly sparse and there are huge gaps at certain periods.
    The main thing that concerns me is that many of the people who can fill a lot of those gaps might not be with us much longer, so I wondered whether we could have a permanent thread on here that shows the club's history. Such a thread could be constantly expanded with supporter's first hand memories until we have a really good document that all City supporters could read. What do you think?
    One season I would love to read more about is the one below:

    1948–49 Promotion. Managed by former England international Horatio (Raich) Stratton Carter, City won the Division Three (North) highlighted by an attendance of 49,655 for their top of the table clash at home to Rotherham United on Christmas Day, was a Divisional record that still stands. 55,019 spectators packed into Boothferry Park to see Manchester United defeat the Tigers 1-0 in a closely fought cup battle.
     
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  2. originallambrettaman

    originallambrettaman Mod Moderator
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    I'll make it a sticky for now and we'll see how it goes.
     
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  3. Craigo

    Craigo Well-Known Member

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    Thanks OLM I'll post the info I have so far which can hopefully serve as a framework for people to contribute to.
     
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  4. Theo

    Theo Active Member

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    Can we have the swear filter turned off to allow accurate descriptions from 1995 to 2000?
     
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  5. Craigo

    Craigo Well-Known Member

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    Hopefully this is accurate. Most of the info comes directly from the OWS and some from Wiki. If anything is wrong let me know and I'll edit it.

    1904 Hull City was founded, playing friendly games at The Boulevard (the home of the Hull Rugby League Club), Anlaby Road Cricket Ground and Dairycoates. A year later they were elected to the Second Division of the Football League.

    1909-10 is the nearest the Tigers have ever been to top-flight football until eventual promotion to the Premier League in 2008. They finished in third place, and missed out on the runners-up spot on goal average to Oldham Athletic after losing 3-0 at Oldham on the last Saturday of the season. The gap between City and Oldham was 0.29 of a goal, one of the slimmest margins to determine promotion in the history of the Football League.

    1914-15 The outbreak of World War One had little effect on the Football League during the season and a full League programme was completed, City finishing 7th in Division Two

    1920s Financial troubles began to emerge and City had to sell their best players. Whilst City retained their Second Division status throughout the whole of the 1920s, they never finished higher than fifth.

    1929-30 Best ever run in the FA Cup, beating First Division Newcastle United and Manchester City to reach the semi-finals. They then lost 1-0 to Arsenal after a 2-2 draw.
    Relegation to the Third Division (North) due to an inferior goal average to Bristol City.

    1932-33 The Tigers won the Third Division (North) Championship, finishing with 100 goals and 59 points. Bill McNaughton scored a club record 41 goals during the season.

    1935-36 Relegation and The Tigers spent the remaining years before the Second World War in Division Three (North), coming close to promotion on each occasion.

    1946, the Tigers faced the new season with a new Board of Directors led by Harold Needler, a new manager - Major Frank Buckley, and equally as important a new ground - Boothferry Park, which had been built on the site of an old golf course.

    1948–49 Promotion. Managed by former England international Horatio (Raich) Stratton Carter, City won the Division Three (North) highlighted by an attendance of 49,655 for their top of the table clash at home to Rotherham United on Christmas Day, was a Divisional record that still stands. 55,019 spectators packed into Boothferry Park to see Manchester United defeat the Tigers 1-0 in a closely fought cup battle.

    1956–61 City yo-yoed between The Second Division and Division Three (North).

    1963 With funds pumped into the club by Harold Needler Manager Cliff Britton re-built the team bringing in the most free-scoring forward-line in the club's history, including Ken Wagstaff, Chris Chilton, Ken Houghton and Ian Butler.

    1965-66 ended with the Third Division championship, 109 goals, 69 points and a number of other best performances, including an attendance of 40,231 for the top of the table clash with Millwall, which at the time was a record for the Third Division. An even larger crowd of 45,328 turned up to see the Tigers take on Chelsea in an FA Cup quarter-final replay, but after drawing 2-2 in London, they lost 3-1 in the second meeting.

    Early 70s – Terry Neil was manager, City finished fifth in second division and we lost first ever English penalty shoot-out to Man U.

    Mid 70s - The Cod Wars, football violence, industrial unrest but not much happening at Boothferry Park.

    Late 70s – Managerial merry-go-round; John Kaye, Bobby Collins, Ken Houghton (Relegation to Division 3), Mike Smith (Relegation to Division 4 for the first time)

    Early 80s – Tigers go into receivership. Don Robinson takes over as Chairman and Colin Appleton as manager with Brian Marwood, Steve McClaren, Billy Whitehurst and Les Mutrie. Resulting in promotion back to Div. 3 in 83

    Mid and late 80s - Promotion to Division 2 in 86 under Brian Horton where we remained for the next five seasons.

    Early 90s – . Financial troubles again result in selling Dean Windass and Alan Fettis to fight off winding-up orders. Relegation to Div. 3 in 91 under Terry Dolan.

    Mid 90s - Relegation to Div. 3 (previously Div. 4) under Terry Dolan in 96. David **** Lloyd buys the club and installs Mark Hateley as manager in 97. Tigers finish 17th in the table.

    Late 90s – Lloyd sells the club in 98 but retains ownership of Boothferry Park. Hateley leaves with City at the foot of the table and Warren Joyce takes over. He steers The Tigers to ‘The Great Escape’ and saves us from the abyss with games to spare.

    Early 2000s – Warren Joyce is shamefully replaced by Brian Little in 2000. Lloyd locks us out of Boothferry Park, but City still make the Div. 3 play-offs . Adam Pearson takes over, sorts out the finances and saves us from closure. Little leaves, Molby takes over, Molby is then sacked and Peter Taylor takes the helm in 2002. City move to The KC Stadium.


    Mid 2000s – Taylor guides City to back-to-back promotions in 2003–04 and in 2004–05 to get us back to the second tier of English football. He then leaves for Crystal Palace and Phil Parkinson briefly takes over before Phil Brown (who brings Dean Windass back to the club) is permanently appointed in 2007.

    Late 2000s – Pearson sells the club to a consortium including Paul Duffen and Russell Bartlett. In the season 2007 – 2008 City qualify for the play-offs. We beat Watford in the semis to book our trip to Wembley and then the incredible moment came as Windass struck his wonder goal to floor Bristol City and take The Tigers to the top tier of English football for the first time in our history!!!
    City’s ascent from the bottom of the football league had taken only five seasons .
    In 2008 – 2009 (Despite being relegation favourites) Phil Brown guided us to our highest ever position after nine games. We sat in third place on 20 points with only Chelsea and Liverpool above us on goal difference. Unfortunately the rest of the season developed into an arduous struggle, but City survived relegation in 17th position on the last day of the season.
    2009 – 2010 saw the bubble burst for The Tigers. A series of bad results left the club spiralling down the table and Adam Pearson returned to replace Paul Duffen. Phil Brown was finally put on ‘Gardening Duty’ after a run of four defeats pushed City into the relegation zone but his replacement Iain Dowie proved inept and City were eventually relegated at Wigan on the 3rd of May 2010.

    Early 2010s – Phil Brown’s rollercoaster tenure at Hull City officially ended in June 2010 and Iain Dowie was also shown the door as Nigel Pearson became the new manager.
    Pearson was left with the thankless job of transforming a forlorn team that had become accustomed to losing. The task was made harder still without the luxury of transfer funds because the previous regime had left City with the crippling burden of a £39 million-per-year wage bill. Nevertheless, Pearson achieved a respectable 11th placing in 2010-2011 (including a new record for the club of 14 away matches unbeaten) after the team spent much of the season competing to reach the play-offs. Adam Pearson meanwhile managed to recruit Assam Allam (a successful and wealthy local businessman with Egyptian roots) to buy the club. With Mr Allam’s financial input Hull City AFC are now in a healthy financial position with a very promising young squad competing for promotion in the 2011-2012 season and once more we can ‘Dare To Dream.’
     
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  6. dem_on

    dem_on Member

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    I attended both of those games I don't have a great memory for detail these days but I do recall most of the promotion team players .....Billy Bly ,JackTaylor,Tom Berry,Jimmy Greenhalgh,Harold Meens,John Mellor,Ken Harrison,Viggo Jensen,Norman Moore ,Willie Buchan,Raich Carter,Eddie Burbanks. Little uncertain when Viggo joined (thats why there are 12) but he did originally play in the inside forward position before he made fullback his own.Tom Berry moved to Centre half when Harold Meens departed. It was in the Cater era that the song "Boothferry Roar" was penned and the team ran out to the crowd singing it( I can still remember the lyrics). Billy Bly and John Mellor were close neighbours and we used to visit their homes in Danube Road (I think it was) which was common in those days of Autograph hunting.Raich was living on Anlaby Road and my Grandfather took me to visit him.Ken Harrison was lodging behind Cussons shop on the corner of Manor road and I got to know him very well later in life as we often played Golf together .When married he lived on Willerby Road only a few houses from me. After retirement Eddie Burbanks took over the small cafe close to the railway bridge on Calvert Lane.
    At the Manchester United cup game many of the younger supporters where lifted over the barrier behind the goal at the bunkers end and I sat only a few yards from the goal on boards,on the cinder track around the ground, placed there for the use of photographers .Something that wouldn't be allowed at todays grounds. In the game Billy Bly was concussed and as he came out for the second half he was still shaky and set off for the wrong end much to everyone's amusement as he was led back to the right goal.The tigers put up a great show against an individually and collectively superior team and 1-0 was a super effort.
    The great John Charles played against Raich at Boothferry Park at this period in what was ,if not his first,one of his earliest games for Leeds I think he was around 18 at the time.It was a time when some real quality players came to Boothferry Park to play in Friendlies and I got to see Stanley Mathews,Billy Wright,Stan Mortensen(who later joined the Tigers) and all for free as I got free tickets from the school as a member of a successful schoolboy team. Big crowds where a regular thing in those days but of course there was less opposition vying for the supporters money and it was cheap entertainment which got most men out of shopping with the wife on a Saturday afternoon.

    I apologise for rambling ,but I got lost in the moment................<biggrin>
     
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  7. Craigo

    Craigo Well-Known Member

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    Great to hear your recollections dem_on. It must have been very strange standing among 49,655 people at Boothferry Park on Christmas day. That's something the rest of us are very unlikely to experience. What did it sound like with 50000 people singing inside Boothferry Park and what was the year when you saw your first match?
    I'm really glad you've responded and I hope you and maybe even some of your friends could tell us a bit more about being Tiger's fans in the old days. Stuff like this is the history of our club and we don't want to lose it.
     
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  8. RicardoHCAFC

    RicardoHCAFC Well-Known Member
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    Because we don't play on Xmas Day, we don't get near 50k gates, or because there's no BP any more? (just to highlight the distance away from it we are)
     
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  9. Craigo

    Craigo Well-Known Member

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    No. I just meant standing in a footy crowd of 50000 on Christmas day must have been weird, but not as weird as "It was in the Cater era that the song "Boothferry Roar" was penned and the team ran out to the crowd singing it" can you imagine that?
     
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  10. Mrs. BLUE_MOUNTAINS_BEAR

    Mrs. BLUE_MOUNTAINS_BEAR Well-Known Member

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    My husband went to Hull City's first post war match in 1946 with his dad and grandad at age 8. His dad was taken to his first match at age 5 in 1910 and his grandad was at Hull City's first match in 1904, prior to that having supported Albany Soccer Club which entered the football league as Hull City AFC.
    My husband left England in 1966 and the penultimate match he saw was the Chelsea v Hull City FA Cup match in London.Before that match he had swapped a World Cup final ticket for a Cup Final ticket hoping that the Tigers would be there. The last match he saw was Everton v Sheffield Wednesday (perhaps one of the best Wembley Cup Finals). He remains a dedicated Hull City fan and although there are no males to carry on the family association with the club his young niece is a passionate supporter.
     
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  11. Mrs. BLUE_MOUNTAINS_BEAR

    Mrs. BLUE_MOUNTAINS_BEAR Well-Known Member

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    My husbands recollection is that the Tigers entered the field to a version of "Tiger Rag" being played and the "Boothferry Roar" song subsequently followed before the kick-off.But he is heading towards old age and cannot recall for certain which version of "Tiger Rag" was played!
     
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  12. Craigo

    Craigo Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for contriibuting Mrs BMB. I didn't think there was any chance we would get a link to the first Tiger's match. Did your husband's grandad ever tell him anything about it, and does your husband have any other memories he can share with us?
    Afraid I can't stick around to chat though as its 2:00 am here and I'm cream crackered. G'Night as you would probably say. :smile:
     
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  13. smidgen

    smidgen Active Member

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    Thanks dem_on and Mrs. BMB! Some really interesting stuff here.

    Craig: Are you going to do something with this when you've put it together?
     
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  14. Jimmy Graham's bald head

    Jimmy Graham's bald head Well-Known Member

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    Agreed, this is fascinating reading. Only wish my nana and grandpa were still around - they were both at the first game at Boothferry and I used to love talking to them about City 'back in the olden days'
     
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  15. Craigo

    Craigo Well-Known Member

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    I haven't got any plans to except maybe to put the info into chronological order (if enough gets posted). The main thing is that the stories aren't lost, so I'm hoping that (apart from the older supporters posting) the younger ones will ask their grandparents what they remember and also post the stories on here. If anyone works with old people in care homes etc in Hull maybe they could also gather some stories.
     
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  16. amberosia

    amberosia Member

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    Actually, City sold 55,000 tickets for the Rotherham game, which is a record for any 3rd level match. They had over 70,000 postal applications for the game. The reason 55,000 weren't there was a transport strike. which makes you think how nearly 50,000 managed to turn up in the days when very,very, few had cars. and I'll bet they weren't leaving early like they do now because they have to dive to Ferriby or somewhere and can't bear to be a bit late home.
    Only ourselves and Grimsby were allowed to play on Christmas Day, a dispensation given because of the fishing fleets working practices.
     
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  17. Hank Scorpio

    Hank Scorpio Well-Known Member

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    Having seen the pictures of the massive crowds at Fer Ark in the Stoke, Man Utd and Chelsea games, they probably couldn't get out until everyone else began to leave.

    Didn't the RL clubs play on christmas day and all? Or was that later?
     
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  18. smidgen

    smidgen Active Member

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    Have you checked out Wiki? I'd guess you have.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_City_A.F.C.

    Having started the one on old Hull cinemas, and watched it build, I wondered if you'd feel like adding your stuff into the Wiki file. Or do you want to keep your stuff separate?
     
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  19. Craigo

    Craigo Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the link UnaBomber. I hadn't seen that stuff before. If you're asking me about Wiki I don't know. I suppose it's just worth seeing how it goes on here for now. The thread has had 420 views so far but only 10 people have posted so it hasn't exactly taken off yet. I don't know whether people think it's just for the oldest games, but I was hoping for personal stories on all games and other info surrounding the club.
    please log in to view this image

    Nice to see we set the precedent by finishing above Leeds.
     
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  20. smidgen

    smidgen Active Member

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    This thing of yours looks like its going to become a monster. Maybe you should think about a site of its own (Wordpress or Blogspot kind of thing)?

    I'm laid up with an injured leg at the mo, so got a bit of time available. Do you want me to have a look at what's involved?
     
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