Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull, Hull F.C., or the Airlie Birds, is a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The city of Hull is split in two by the River Hull with Hull F.C. representing the west side and cross-city rivals Hull Kingston Rovers representing the east side.
Hull play their home games at the MKM Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club's traditional home colours are white shirts with black hoops and black shorts.
Hull have won the League Championship six times and the Challenge Cup five times.
History Founding The club was first founded in 1865 by a group of ex-schoolboys from York, led by Anthony Bradley, who had been at Rugby School.https://www.hullfc.com/club/history-stats/club-history They met at the Young Men's Fellowship of St Mary's Church, Lowgate, where Reverend Scott was the vicar and whose five sons made up the nucleus of the team, together with a number of plumber and glazier recruits. In 1871 it was the first Yorkshire club to join the Rugby Football Union and in 1881 merged with another club; Hull White Star.
The early years After an acrimonious split from the Rugby Football Union in 1895, Hull F.C. were one of the initial 22 clubs who formed the Northern Union. That same year the club moved from East Hull to the Hull Athletic Club at the Boulevard in Airlie Street. Thus picking up the nickname "the Airlie Birds". In September 1895 8,000 people turned out to witness Hull F.C.'s first match there in which they beat Liversedge RFC.https://www.hullfc.com/blog/2021/09/21/happy-156th-birthday-to-hull-fc/ The Oxford-educated Cyril Lemprière (1870–1939), who also played for Yorkshire, was captain of Hull during the 1895–96 and 1897–98 seasons.
Between 1908 and 1910, Hull F.C. lost three consecutive Challenge Cup Finals: in the first they failed to score against Hunslet who would go on to win All Four Cups; in the second they failed to score against Wakefield Trinity; and in the third final in 1910 they held Leeds to a 7–7 draw at Fartown, Huddersfield but were heavily beaten in the replay held two days later.
World War I and after In 1913 the club paid Hunslet F.C. a then-world record of £600, plus £14 per match, for Billy Batten, the first representative from Hull F.C. so far inducted into the 17-member British Rugby League Hall of Fame. With Billy Batten on board, the club won their first Challenge Cup in 1914, beating Huddersfield in the semi-final and Wakefield Trinity in the final held in Halifax. Playing alongside Billy Batten on the day of the final was John "Jack" Harrison VC, MC who scored a try, one of 52 he scored in the 1914–5 season alone, a club record that still stands. Australian Jim Devereux became the first player to score 100 career tries for Hull,Hull's Australians at Hull F.C..com but on the other side of the ledger, 12 Hull F.C. players were killed during the First World War.
In 1920, Billy Batten was once again key in Hull F.C.'s first ever Championship Final, scoring the only try in their 3–2 victory over Huddersfield. But the rest of the early 1920s were bittersweet years for the club, with Hull F.C. not able to match the successes of 1914. In 1921, the club lost the Yorkshire County Cup but won the county championship, both against cross-city rivals Hull Kingston Rovers, before losing a further two consecutive cup finals in 1922 and 1923 to Rochdale Hornets and Leeds respectively. However, Hull F.C. managed to win the Yorkshire County Cup in 1923 and finish top of the league.
In the early 1930s Hull F.C. had a full back and goal kicker called Joe Oliver who was so dependable with the boot that the crowd at one match spontaneously started singing the Gene Autry song Old Faithful to him. Hull F.C. supporters adopted the song as their battle cry from then on.
Hull F.C.'s record attendance was set in 1936 when 28,798 turned up for a visit by Leeds for a third round Challenge Cup match.
The post-World War II years On Monday 8 September 1952, the Australian "Kangaroos" played Hull F.C. at the Boulevard. They had opened their tour of the U.K. with a victory at Keighley two days earlier, and they continued their winning run with a 28–0 victory over Hull.
In 1955, the black Welshman Roy Francis became the first black professional coach in any British team sport when he switched from playing on the wing to coaching Hull F.C..
In 1956, Hull F.C. won the league championship when Colin Hutton kicked a last-minute penalty in the final against Halifax at Maine Road, Manchester. Hull F.C. won the play-offs again in 1958, against Workington Town, and also won the European Club championship in 1957. These triumphs helped heal the wounds of two successive Yorkshire County Cup Final defeats in 1955 and 1957, with the club losing two further Challenge Cup finals in 1959 and 1960 to Wigan and Wakefield Trinity, as well as losing the cup finals at Wembley Stadium in 1959 and 1960.
Johnny Whiteley became a player coach in October 1963, and when Roy Francis retired as Hull F.C. coach in 1965 Whiteley took over. Hull F.C. lost to Wakefield Trinity 17–10 in the 1968 Rugby Football League Championship final at Headingley on 4 May 1968, and Whiteley resigned in 1970 to coach Hull Kingston Rovers. Ivor Watts was then appointed coach from 1970 to 1971, during which time Hull F.C. won 28 matches and lost 17.
With the appointment of Arthur Bunting as coach in 1978, Hull F.C. began a period of dominance, returning to the top flight by winning all of their 26 Division Two matches in 1978–79, the only time a club has won all of its league matches in a season. The club lost the 1980 Challenge Cup final against Hull Kingston Rovers 10–5 and had to wait until 2016 to win at Wembley. In 1982, Hull F.C. lost to Widnes in the Premiership Final, but avenged the defeat with an 18–9 Challenge Cup replay win at Elland Road.
Hull F.C. eventually won the league in 1983 and also reached the Premiership final, the Challenge Cup final, and the Yorkshire County Cup Final that year, but with the latter trophy their only reward from those three finals. They also lost to Featherstone Rovers at Wembley in one of the great Challenge Cup final upsets, as well as losing the Premiership final for three years running.
The signing of Australian Peter Sterling, later to be inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2016, maintained Hull F.C.'s strength, and Bunting's men went to their third successive Yorkshire Cup beating Hull Kingston Rovers 29–12. But they were edged out of arguably the greatest ever Challenge Cup Final in 1985 by Wigan at Wembley Stadium in front of 99,801 fans, the rugby league attendance record for Wembley, with the final score 28 to 24 in Wigan's favour. A number of subsequent coaches such as Brian Smith (1988–90) failed to deliver consistent success. But although Hull F.C. lost the Premiership final in 1989 to Widnes, two years later they returned to beat Widnes 14–4 at Old Trafford under coach Noel Cleal.
Royce Simmons moved to England to coach Hull F.C. for two seasons from 1992 to 1994. When financial trouble forced Hull F.C. to put seven players on the transfer list in June 1993, Simmons ran five marathons to raise money to pay for players from Australia.
The summer season era In 1996, the first tier of British rugby league clubs played the inaugural Super League season and changed from a winter to a summer season. As the sport entered a new era in Britain, controversy was sparked in the city of Hull when it was suggested that Hull F.C. should merge with Hull Kingston Rovers to form "Humberside". Hull F.C.'s shareholders gave the idea general approval but it was ultimately rejected. Like many other rugby league clubs, the club instead re-branded, becoming the "Hull Sharks". But the newly rebranded team finished below the cut-off point of 10th in the existing top flight and so were excluded from the new Super League.
Phil Sigsworth joined the club in 1996 and coached them to the First Division championship title and promotion to Super League in 1997, but the team struggled to compete in the top division. Off-field issues in 1999 saw the club offered a merger with Gateshead Thunder, including being offered £1.25 million as part of the agreement. However, the club reverted to the name Hull F.C. at the start of the 2000 Super League season and continued to play at The Boulevard without any acknowledgement of Gateshead. A new Gateshead Thunder was formed for the 2001 Premiership season, with ex-St. Helens coach Shaun McRae at the helm until 2004.
In January 2003, after 107 years at the Boulevard, Hull F.C. moved to the £44 million state-of-the-art council-owned Kingston Communications Stadium, more commonly known as the KC Stadium, and the rejuvenation of the club continued. Although they were joint tenants at the stadium alongside the city's championship football club side Hull City A.F.C., the two teams shared use of the stadium, forcing Hull F.C. to play a cup match away at Doncaster to avoid two matches clashing.
Shaun McRae left the club to return to Australia at the end of the 2004 season and was replaced by McRae's deputy and former England coach John Kear. In his first season at the club, Kear led Hull F.C. to the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final for the first time since 1985, defeating Leeds 25–24 in a thrilling final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. Paul Cooke's 77th minute try was converted by Danny Brough to give Hull a 1-point lead, which they held onto after Hull F.C. captain Richard Swain charged down a drop-goal attempt from Leeds skipper Kevin Sinfield in the dying seconds of the match. John Kear left Hull F.C. on 3 April 2006 after a disappointing start to the season, seeing Hull F.C. lose four out of their first seven league games as well as their defence of the Challenge Cup ending at the first hurdle when beaten by the Bradford Bulls 23–12.
John Kear was replaced by Australian Peter Sharp, recruited from the Parramatta Eels where he was assistant coach. Between 14 April and 15 July 2006 Hull F.C. won 13 matches in succession, including a 27–26 beating of the league leaders St Helens on 8 June 2006, the first time they had beaten St Helens on their home ground for 18 years. This run of wins ended in defeat at Harlequins RL on 23 July 2006, resulting in Hull F.C. managing to finish in second place overall, their highest league position in the Super League era. In the finals they lost to league leaders St. Helens in the first Grand Final playoff game, but succeeded in reaching the final by defeating the reigning champions Bradford. Over 20,000 Hull F.C. fans travelled to Old Trafford for the Grand Final, and the overall attendance that day broke the Grand Final record, mainly due to the stadium's recent expansion. But Hull F.C. again lost out to the Saints, this time by 26–4.
Hull F.C. signed five players for the 2007 season: Matt Sing, a prolific National Rugby League try-scorer and Australian representative; Hutch Maiava; Willie Manu; Danny Tickle; and Wayne Godwin. The "Hull Derby" also returned for the 2007 season due to Rovers' promotion from National League 1. The first of four of these derby matches was played on Easter Monday, 9 April 2007, at the KC Stadium in front of a sell-out attendance of 23,002 and ended with a win for Hull F.C., who had been struggling early in the season. The final score was 22–14 with Sid Domic crossing the line for Hull F.C. in the final seconds.
On 23 April stand-off Paul Cooke controversially resigned from Hull F.C. to join Hull Kingston Rovers. Cooke claimed he was out of contract as he had not signed the contract that the club had offered him. Following his departure, club chief executive David Plummer resigned and his replacement James Rule came in for much criticism.