Hull FC

Hull F.C. can trace their lineage back to 1865 and are one of the founding members of the Northern Union. Their nickname (The Airlie Birds) comes from the ground that they moved to in 1895 and shared with Hull Athletic Club at the Boulevard on Airlie Street. Most of their traditional supporters hail from the west side of Hull whilst the east side of the city supports Hull Kingston Rovers. The clubs name remained relatively unchanged throughout its history until 1999 when they took up the Hull FC moniker when the Hull Sharks merged with Gateshead Thunder to help ease the two clubs growing financial troubles.

The first team was formed by a group of ex Rugby school children in 1865. The vicar of St. Mary's Church in Lowgate allowed the team to meet at the Young Mans Fellowship, in fact his five sons made up the majority of the team. Along with some plumbers and glaziers and a merger with a second team (Hull White Star) Hull Football Club was formed and it was one of the very first clubs to join the Rugby Football Union. Hull were amongst the 22 clubs that stood up for players rights and formed the Northern Union after the split from the Rugby Football Union in 1895. They played their first real match at the Hull Athletic Club Boulevard in the same year and a massive 8,000 people turned up to watch the game. Fortunately for Hull the match went well and they triumphed over Liversedge. Between 1908 and 1910 unfortunately Hull lost three consecutive Challenge Cup finals and although they are one of the most famous and feared Rugby League teams are in fact the underdogs having lost in more major finals than any other team.

Hull continued to be relatively lucky until the early 1920's when they lost the County Championship and two consecutive cup finals, although they did manage to finish top of the league thanks to a victory in the Yorkshire Cup. Hull managed to set a record attendance in 1936 when 28,798 people turned up to watch them play Leeds in a Challenge Cup match. The ending of the second world war breathed new life into the club with Hull taking two Championships in three years (beating Halifax and Workington Town), however this winning streak would not continue with Hull FC loosing two Challenge Cups to Wigan and Wakefield and loosing two Yorkshire Cups as well. This rather random mix of victories and defeats cemented the clubs reputation with it's fans, everybody loves the underdog and at times Hull FC certainly seemed to live up to that ideal.

When the team appointed Arthur Bunting as their coach Hull FC began to dominate the league once more. They stormed the tables, winning all of their 26 division two matches, to this day this still remains a record and is the only recorded time that a club has triumphed in all of its league matches in a season and returned to the top flight. Unfortunately however Hull FC lost the 1980 challenge cup at Wembley against Hull KR and have had no luck at Wembley since that day, local rumours have it that a sign was erected on the A63 leading out of Hull that read "last one out turn the lights off" due to the popularity of the sport and team in Hull and the fact that almost everyone was travelling to Wembley to watch the final. Throughout the 80's the team continued to have mixes successes, whilst Hull FC reached the Premiership final, the Challenge Cup final and the Yorkshire Cup final (and also won the league in 1983) they lost the Premiership final in 1989 to Widnes and suffered a string of other minor defeats.

When the Super League was formed in 1996 many suggested that Hull FC should merge with Hull Kingston Rovers to form a Humberside based team. This proposal was rejected by the club but in a move designed to appeal to the Super League they changed their name to the Hull Sharks. Unfortunately the Hull FC side finished underneath the cut-off point of 10th in the top flight and were excluded from participating in the opening year of the Super League. Fortunately they managed to turn around their fortunes and won promotion to the Super League the next year, and enjoyed moderate success until they merged with Gateshead Thunder in 1999. After 107 years at the Boulevard ground Hull FC moved to a state of the art ground known as the Kingston Communications Stadium, sharing the locale with the Hull football team, Hull AFC. This relationship continues to work well into the 2007 season with each team getting priority use of the stadium at different times of the year.