History of Hull City A.F.C.

=Inception=

Hull City A.F.C. were founded on 28 June 1904. For some years prior to this attempts were made to found a football club, but in a city dominated initially by rugby league with the likes of Hull FC and Hull KR this proved difficult.

The first season for Hull City consisted of friendly matches; because of the time of founding, City were unable to apply for membership to The Football League for the 1904-05 season. The early matches were played at The Boulevard, home of rugby league side Hull FC. On 1 September 1904, City's debut match took place against Notts County; with 6000 in attendance at the Boulevard, City notched up an impressive start holding the more experienced County to a 2-2 draw.

Hull's first taste of competitive football came in the FA Cup, but they were eliminated, after a replay, in the preliminary round against Stockton, the score was 7-4 on aggregate. After uneasy relationships with landlords, Hull City moved to Anlaby Road Cricket Ground.

Football League

Finally, after playing 44 friendly fixtures the previous season, Hull City were entered into the Football League Second Division for the 1905-06 season. Other teams competing in the league that season included the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea, as well as Yorkshire rivals Leeds City, Bradford City and Barnsley. Indeed it was Barnsley who they faced in their first game, beating them 4-1. Eventually, Hull would finish fifth.

The following season a new ground was built for Hull City across the road from the cricket ground. Still under the managership of Ambrose Langley, City continued to finish consistently in the top half of the table. They came agonisingly close to promotion in the 1909-10 season, recording what would be their highest ever finish in their history (a record still held today); Hull finishing third, level on points with second placed Oldham Athletic, they missed promotion on goal average by the slim margin of 0.29 of a goal.

Before World War I, Hull reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1915, beating out West Bromwich Albion, Northampton Town and Southampton, before eventually going out to Bolton Wanderers in a 4-2 away defeat.

Post-War

In cup competitions, the club's greatest achievement was in 1930, when they reached the FA Cup semi-final. The cup run saw Hull knocking out Leeds United and eventual Champions of the Second and Third Division; Blackpool and Plymouth Argyle respectively. They then knocked out Manchester City, to meet Newcastle United in the FA Cup quarter finals. The first leg at St James' Park finished as a 1-1 draw, but in the replay Hull beat Newcastle 1-0.

The semi-final match against Arsenal took place at Elland Road in Leeds, the game ended 2-2, and was taken to a replay. Arsenal knocked Hull City out at Aston Villa's home ground, the game ended 1-0.

In 1948-49, managed by former England international Raich Carter, Hull City won the Third Division (North), and their new Boothferry Park ground saw a crowd approaching 50,000 for the Christmas Day game against Rotherham United, and exceeding that for the FA Cup 6th round tie with Manchester United; the attendance of 55,019 still remains a record today.

Yo-yoing between the second and third tiers of English football, Hull City had promotion seasons from the third to the second division again in 1959 and 1966, winning the third division championship in that latter season. Still, however, top flight football eluded the club. In fact, by the early 1980s, Hull City were down in the fourth division, and financial collapse lead to receivership.

The low ebb saw the arrival of unlikely looking saviours in the form of a chairman (Don Robinson) and manager (Colin Appleton) from the footballing outpost of Scarborough F.C. Promotion to Division Three followed in 1983, with a young team featuring the likes of future England international Brian Marwood, future England manager Steve McClaren, fearsome centre-forward Billy Whitehurst, and the prolific goal-scorer Les Mutrie. When Hull City missed out on promotion by 1 goal the following season, Appleton left to manage Swansea City.

Hull City reached the Second Division in 1985 under new player-manager Brian Horton. They defied the odds to stay there for the next five years before finally going down in 1991, by which time the club's manager was Terry Dolan.

triving to survive: 1990s

Hull finished 14th in the Third Division in 1991-92, meaning that they would be competing in the new Football League Division Two. In their first season in the rebranded division, Hull narrowly avoided another relegation but the board kept faith in Dolan and over the next two seasons they achieved secure mid table finishes. But terrible form in 1995-96 condemned Hull to relegation to Division Three.

Dolan was fired and replaced by Mark Hateley after Hull failed to get anywhere near the top of Division Three in 1996-97. By this stage, financial problems were taking their toll on the Tigers and it was starting to look as though the club would go out of business before long. And Hull's league form was steadily deteriorating to the point that relegation to the Conference was looking a real possibility - which surely would have meant the death of the club. Hateley departed in November 1998 to be replaced by 34-year-old veteran player Warren Joyce, who steered the club to safety after being anchored to the foot of the table - Hull City fans refer to this season as "The Great Escape". After this feat, Joyce was perhaps unlucky to be replaced in April 2000 by the experienced Brian Little.

Little breathed new life into Hull and managed to get good results out of the players, despite briefly being locked out of Boothferry Park by the bailiffs and with liquidation looking a real possibility. Hull qualified for the Division Three playoffs in 2000-01, and lost in the semi finals. But things could have been much worse - at least the Hull City fans still had a football club to support. A boardroom takeover had eased the club's precarious financial situation and all fears of closure were banished - had the club been relegated to the Conference the previous season, it is extremely unlikely that this takeover would have taken place.

The Tigers on their way up

New Chairman Adam Pearson ploughed funds into the club, allowing Little to rebuild the team with the aim of immediate promotion. Hull occupied the Division Three promotion and playoff places for much of the 2001-02 season, but Little was sacked two months before the end of the season and Hull slipped to 11th under his successor Jan Mølby.

Hull began the 2002-03 season as most people's favourites for promotion from Division Three, but a terrible start to the season saw relegation look more likely than promotion and Molby was sacked in October as the Tigers languished fifth from bottom in the league.

Peter Taylor was named as Hull's new manager and in December 2002, just weeks after his appointment, Hull relocated to the impressive new 25,400-seat Kingston Communications Stadium after 56 years at Boothferry Park. After this move, Hull's attendances were some of the best in the division but their results were rarely this impressive and they were unable to finish above 13th place in the final table.

Hull's new stadium was - and still is - one of the most impressive stadiums outside the Premiership [cite web | title = Prestigious Award for The KC Stadium | url = http://www.kcstadium.co.uk/newsstory.asp?id=545 | accessdate = 27 Sep | accessyear = 2006 ] and it has helped influence an upturn in Hull's fortunes after a decade of misery. The two seasons which followed the opening of the new stadium were hugely successful. Hull were Division Three runners-up in 2003-04 and League One runners-up in 2004-05 - back-to-back promotions - which took them into the Championship, the second tier of English football.

2005-06 was hardly the most exciting season in the history of Hull City football club; it was more a season of consolidation after two successive promotions. Hull finished 18th in the final table - a comfortable 10 points clear of relegation and their highest league finish for 16 years.

2006 and onwards

The successful stint at Hull City saw Peter Taylor's name linked with the Charlton Athletic manager's job before it was given to Iain Dowie. On 13 June 2006, Peter Taylor left Hull to take up the job vacated by Dowie at Crystal Palace, a club at which he had enjoyed considerable success as a player. Phil Parkinson was confirmed as his replacement on 29 June 2006, with Hull paying Colchester (with whom Parkinson was still under contract) £400,000 compensation.

Defender Leon Cort became Hull's first ever million-pound player when he followed Peter Taylor to Crystal Palace for a fee of £1,250,000. Parkinson wasted no time in spending the majority of this money on strengthening the City squad in readiness for the 2006-07 season.

Chairman Adam Pearson has stated his ambition to take Hull into the top flight for the first time in their history [cite web | title = Hull in print | url = http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/hullinprint/archive/febmar2005/hull_city_stand_up.php | accessdate = 26 Sep | accessyear = 2006 ] - and he believed Phil Parkinson was the manager to do it. [cite web | title = thepfa.co.uk | url = http://www.thepfa.co.uk/display.cfm?article=8723&type=1 | accessdate = 26 Sep | accessyear = 2006 ] However, their dismal start to the 2006-07 season was hardly the form of a team attempting to gain promotion, and on 4 December 2006 Parkinson was sacked as manager with Hull in the relegation zone, despite having spent over £2 million on players. Parkinson had achieved two notable firsts, under his management Hull City won for the first time ever on live television and also won a penalty shoot-out for the first time.

Phil Brown was appointed as caretaker manager, and by 4 January 2007 Hull had moved out of the relegation zone and Brown was rewarded with a contract as their new manager until at least the end of the season.

Hull's Championship game against Sunderland AFC on 17 March 2007 at the Stadium of light saw an attendance of 38,448, a record to a Hull City game since they visited Stamford Bridge on 14 May 1977. [cite web | title = Hull versus Sunderland: Match Report | url = http://www.hullcityafc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/MatchReport/0,,10338~33911,00.html | accessdate = 18 May | accessyear = 2007 ]

Hull City all but secured their place in the Championship next season with a 1-0 victory away at Cardiff City, on 28 April 2007. This left them 3 points clear of Leeds United, the only side with a chance of overtaking them, but with a vastly superior goal difference this was only a mathematical possibility. This crucial goal was scored by Dean Windass, who had rejoined his hometown club on loan from Bradford City.

By May 4th, due to a lack of any realistic chance of them remaining in the Championship, Leeds went into administration [cite web | title = Relegated Leeds in administration | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leeds_united/6625751.stm | accessdate = 4 May | accessyear = 2007 ] and in doing so received the 10 point penalty such a move incurs. This deduction left Leeds at the bottom of the championship on 36 points, securing Hull's place in the Championship for the 2007-08 season.

That Summer saw Adam Pearson move on, declaring that he felt he had taken the club as far as he could and new investment would be required in order to progress further. He sold the club to a consortium headed by new Chairman Paul Duffen and severed his ties with the club, eventually taking over as Charirman of Derby County. Under Duffen and manager Phil Brown Hull City improved greatly on their relegation battle of 2006–07 and qualified for the play-offs after finishing the season in third place. They beat Watford 6–1 on aggregate in the semi-finals and played Bristol City in the final on 24 May 2008, which Hull won 1–0 at Wembley Stadium, with Hull native Dean Windass scoring the winning goal.cite news
first = Phil
last = McNulty
title = Hull 4-1 Watford (agg 6-1)
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/7393756.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2008-05-14
accessdate = 2008-05-24] cite news
first = Phil
last = McNulty
title = Bristol City 0-1 Hull
url = http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/7416502.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2008-05-24
accessdate = 2008-05-24]

Their ascent from the bottom division of the English football league to the top in just five seasons is the third fastest ever.cite web
title = The wait ends for Lyon and Hull
url = http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/statisticsandrecords/news/newsid=780472.html?cid=rssfeed&att=
publisher = FIFA
date = 2008-05-28
accessdate = 2008-05-29]

In the 2008-09 season Hull will play in the Premier League and will still play home games at the KC Stadium. Hull City sold out all 20,500 season tickets.cite web
title = Tigers season tickets sold out!
url = http://www.hullcityafc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10338~1324262,00.html
publisher = hullcityafc.premiumtv.co.uk
date = 6 June 2008
accessdate = 2008-06-07 ] Hull have released four of their players: David Livermore, Jay-Jay Okocha, Frank Belt and Brewster Frizzell.cite web
title = Okocha And Livermore Leave Tigers
url =http://www.hullcityafc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10338~1324140,00.html
publisher = hullcityafc.premiumtv.co.uk
date = 05 June 2008
accessdate = 2008-06-07 ]

References