Rochdale Hornets

The Rochdale Hornets can trace their roots back to 1867 when a group of business owners and self-employed men expressed an interest in creating and playing in a team. Within a year they allowed working class men to join as well and in 1871 a senior team was formed to represent the town of Rochdale. The Hornets were ablet o insist on gate money as they played on an enclosed field, a rarity at the time. In 1894 Rochdale moved to the Athletic grounds and the very next year were one of the founding members of the Northern Union when it broke away from the more traditional rules of the game. The annual Law cup was first contested against neighbours Oldham in 1921. Rochdale Hornets took the Northern Union Cup in 1922 in a victory against Hull 10-9 at Headingley in Leeds, this proved to be the one and only Challenge Cup final Rochdale would ever take part in. In 1940-1941, Hornets dropped out of the wartime Lancashire League, they returned to league competition in 1945-1946.

In 1947 and 1958, Rochdale Hornets made it to the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup but both times Wigan ended their hopes of a Wembley final. Rochdale also played their first game at Spotland in 1954 against Keighley in a one-off game. In 1965, Hornets appeared in the final of the Lancashire Cup when a 19,000 crowd saw them lose to Warrington at Knowsley Road, St Helens. They reached a Players No 6 Final in 1974. By 1987 both Rochdale teams (the Hornets and AFC) found themselves in financial trouble. The Rochdale Hornets took up Morrison's offer of £2,700,000 for the Athletic Grounds, and following the sale of the land moved to Rochdale AFC's Spotland stadium in 1988. This new stadium was then jointly owned by Rochdale Hornets, Rochdale Council and Rochdale AFC. In 1989 the Rochdale Hornets earned promotion to the top tier from the Second Division and set a record attendance at Spotland in 1989 when playing on Boxing Day. In 1991, Rochdale appeared in the final of the Lancashire Cup.

In 1996 Rochdale took it upon themselves to sack their coach after they took just one point from their first six games in the First Division season. A ten-match losing sequence was ended as Hornets won at Featherstone, unfortunately Rochdale Hornets ended that 1998 campaign in next to bottom position in Division One. Hornets struggled early in the campaign when they occupied bottom spot for a couple of weeks. They recovered slightly and had moved up to 15th position, fourth bottom, by late June. Martin Hall became the coach of Rochdale Hornets in November of 2000. He stepped into the breach after Steve Deakin had left to work for Keighley after only a few short months in charge. Under his leadership Rochdale went on to two third place finishes in the Northern Ford Premiership, and then he departed along with all of the teams players after not renewing his contract after he failed to take over the club. Bobbie Goulding took over as player-coach in December of 2003. He took charge of the team for two seasons until leaving in November 2005 to be replaced by Darren Abram. He was then sacked in the middle of 2007 after the team faced a series of crushing defeats that left the club facing relegation.