The Bradford Bulls have a long history that they can trace back to the 1800's, right as far back as 1863. In recent years Bradford have been seen as a major rugby league success story with many recalling the epic 2003 season where the Bulls stormed ahead to take all of the major honours and trophies in rugby league, the Challenge Cup, the Superleague Championship, the World Club Championship, and the Minor Premier.

Bradford Rugby Club was formed in 1863 and quickly established themselves at the Park Avenue ground in 1880. Their first major success came in 1884 when they took the Yorkshire Cup, and in 1885 Bradford seceded from the Rugby Football Union along with twenty-two other clubs as a protest against payments to players. The Northern Rugby Union was formed from these clubs and the 1903 Bradford were finished the season level with Salford at the top of the league and clenched victory in the play-off that followed. The 1907 the infamous "Great Betrayal" took place with club chairman Mr Briggs using his influence to swing a decision about the clubs future towards playing Association football as opposed to rugby union, and Bradford (Park Avenue) A.F.C was formed with a new team (Bradford Northern) being formed to continue playing rugby. The club moved to the Greenfield Athletic Ground and stayed there until a move to Birch Lane in 1908. In 1933 Bradford NOrthern signed a ten year lease with Bradford City Council for the Odsal Top waste dump which was quickly turned into the largest stadium outside of London.

The club saw many successes throughout the 1940's and 50's with a large number of cup wins including the Yorkshire Cup (eight times), and the Challenge Cup (three times). In 1953 the club had the honour of being watched by a crowd of 69,429 people, the highest ever attendance recorded in the North of England. The team also controversially took on the Sunday Observance lobby when they staged matches on a Sunday in 1954. In the 1960's it appeared as though the clubs support was waning; in 1963 (exactly ten years after their record for highest number of supporters) they attracted a record low of only 324 fans when they played against Barrow. The club went out of buisness later that year with the club reforming in 1964 and were accepted back into the Rugby League. The 1970's saw another shift in fortunes for Bradford when they moved from the second to the second to the first division.

The team have had a high amount of success to losses since they joined the Super League (this was when the club first changed its name from Bradford Northern to the now more commonly referred to Bradford Bulls). The team took the Super League in its second year of running (1997) with a record streak of 20 wins from the start of the season. The Bradford Bulls also had the distinction of being named the best supported club in 1997 with an average support of over 15,000. The Bulls were also runners-up for the Challenge Cup this year but lost 32-22 to St Helens in their final game. In 1998 the teams fortunes cartwheeled compared to the previous year and they only managed to finish fifth in the Super League, however they retained their honorary title as the best supported club of the year. 1999 saw the Bradford Bulls set a new scoring record as they beat Workington Town 92-0 in the fourth round of the Challenge Cup. 2007 sees the Bradford Bulls celebrating their centenary, it is exactly 100 years since Bradford Northern was first formed. The year has seen the Bradford Bulls fortunes swing backwards and forwards with the club being involved in a controversial match in May against Leeds Rhinos (the Rhinos took the game 38-42 however the referee later admitted to making many mistakes leading Bulls chairman Peter Hood to call for the points to be awarded to his club instead. However in June and July the clubs fortunes took a turn for the better when they beat Hull F.C, Leeds Rhinos and St Helens, only loosing out to Wigan Warriors.