Wasn't there a Hull Albany? I seem to recall some tale involving them and Rovers. Something about playing on the cricket pitch on Haworth Street is bouncing round my empty head too.
This has been debated on a few boards over the years and it doesn't seem that anyone knows for sure, as they were just ameteur clubs it doesn't seem that much was recorded.
No idea. The oldest that I can find are not clubs, but teams Barnham College (Hull) and Hull College, both around 1855. I have seen something like Hull Brunswick (with and Eagle on their badge) Hull Albion is a name that kept cropping up and well as Swifts.
Have I confused Albany with Albion? The team that had some involvement with Rovers, must have been very early.
Not as early as I thought. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_Kingston_Rovers Hull KR amalgamated their resources with Albany Soccer Club (later to become Hull City A.F.C.).[3] Rovers won the Yorkshire Cup for the first time beating Shipley 11–5 in the final.[3] The club also won the league competition and beat the rest of the league 26–8 in a challenge match.[3] Rovers applied to join the Northern Union and played their first match under the new code in 1897/98.[3]
I'm ploughing through this mate. https://archive.org/stream/footballrugbyuni00marsrich#page/420/mode/2up
Hull Town was formed on the 4th October 1879 by a group of 12 members of Hull Town Cricket Club as a way of occupying their leisure time during the winter months (The meeting was at The Crown and Cushion Hotel, No.3 Land of Green Ginger). A list of rules was drawn up including Rule 11; The club colours shall be Amber and Black. The club became a strong member of the local football scene, but fortunes waned and by 1887 it was disbanded. It was briefly resurrected, but by 1889 the demise was permanent. However in 1896 the name resurfaced. In 1895 Northern Rugby Union sides set up their own 'League' competition, but Hull KR refused to cross the divide and because they were unable to run a successful 'A' team they amalgamated with a local football club by the name of 'Albany' and the new club was called Hull Town Association Club - The date of amalgamation was 25th August 1896. Within a couple of years the initial enthusiasm had worn off and HTAC was disbanded in1898. However both the officials and players didn't completely sever connections with the sport in the city and after the brief creation of an amateur club called 'Hull City' (which played at Dairycoates) the official announcement of the creation of a professional club named 'Hull City Association Football Club Co. Ltd.' was announced on the 28th June 1904. All info from 'A Century of City' by Mike Peterson
If you go by this screen grab from ‘Football History Map of England and Wales’ then Hull Brunswick were founded in 1894. please log in to view this image
So, City are the oldest surviving Association Football Club in Hull? If so, which other club is the second oldest still in existence?
I've heard the Cobb Morley family used to organize games to entertain the townsfolk during the siege of Hull in 1642, kicking a pigs bladder down Whitefriergate, one team playing with black and amber favours.
Earliest reference I can find for football in Hull is from 1818. When someone was fined 40 shillings for playing football in the streets of Sculcoates! Organised football in Hull seems to have been played by a mixture of Sheffield and Hull rules between 1850 and 1895, as far as I can gather. I don't think that there were clubs as such, just teams at first. Hull College had a team in 1855, but I can only find reference to matches played by Barmham College and Hull Football Club. There was no set rules (as we know) and football was just football. In Hull the rules where different to those played in Sheffield. I believe that Barmham College played Hull Rules football. Old Boys from Barmham went on to form Bradford football club and we know that Hull FC adopted the Northern League Rugby Rules. Football seems to have been turn up and play.
I have seen Swifts, Albion and Brunswick in various reports. But is is hard to link them all to Hull and in the case of Brunswick i dont know if it was the name of the team or the place, if that makes sense.
Omega, are there any details on the Hull Rules, and in particular how they differed from the others that were about? It'd be interesting to see if they were liable to have influenced Cobb-Morley.
