Hull City 1904-2002

Hull City AFC is a football club formed in 1904. Previous attempts to establish a professional club in the East Yorkshire port city on the River Humber had previously stumbled with rugby league being the favoured sport of the day.

Early matches were played at Hull FC’s rugby league ground at The Boulevard prior to moving to the Anlaby Road Cricket Ground. After a season playing friendlies with James Ramster the first ever manager, City were admitted to the second division of the Football League for the 1905-06 season.

Ambrose Langley was appointed as manager as the club built their own ground adjacent to the cricket, while team missed out on promotion to the top level on goal average in 1909-10. It would be as close as they got until they finally reached the Premier League ninety-eight years later.

‘The Tigers’ generally finished mid-table for many seasons. In 1929-30 the side under the tutelage of Billy McCracken reached the semi-final of the FA Cup to face Arsenal. After the 2-2 draw at Elland Road, the Gunners won the replay 1-0 at Villa Park.

The same season saw City relegated to Division Three North before returning to Division Two as champions in 1932-33 under manager Haydn Green before dropping back to the third tier in 1935-36.

City’s Anlaby Road ground suffered badly from bombing during World War Two. They were given notice to quit and moved back to the Boulevard in 1944-45 before moving into their new Boothferry Park home in 1946 after it was eventually readied after the land was purchased in 1929.

 

After a spell under Frank Buckley, City appointed Raich Carter as player-manager in March 1948. Crowds were big as interest grew in the city. A record gate of 55,019 attended the FA Cup quarter final tie against Manchester United in February 1949.

The 1948-49 season also saw the Tigers win the Division Three title with the side containing the likes of goalkeeper Billy Bly, Viggo Jensen and Eddie Burbanks. Bob Brocklebank was at the helm when the club dropped back down in 1955-56 with the side being placed in Division Three after league re-organisation in 1958.

A runners-up place in 1958-59 saw City promoted to Division Two, but their spell lasted just one season. Cliff Britton was appointed as manager in July 1961 as he assembled a side that won the Division Three title in 1965-66 as well as reaching the last eight of the FA Cup backed by the money of local businessman owner Harold Needler.

 

The championship side included record appearance holder Andy Davidson, along with local lad Chris Simpkin and the fantastic forward line of Ian Butler, Ken Houghton and the legendary duo of Ken Wagstaff and Chris Chilton.

Terry Neill was appointed as player-manager in June 1970, taking the team to fifth place in his first season at the helm as well as the sixth round of the FA Cup. Former player John Kaye came in as team boss in September 1974.

After several short-term appointments Ken Houghton couldn’t save the team from relegation in 1977-78 as the club lost their way as crowds dropped. Former Wales boss Mike Smith arrived in December 1979, signing many youngsters who would later be stars at the club.

 

However, too much money had been spent on too many poor signings as City went down to Division Four in 1980-81. In February 1982, the club was placed in receivership, with the North Stand demolished to make way for a supermarket to try and raise funds as the cash from the Needler family, who had bankrolled the club for many years, was cut back.

Former Scarborough chairman Don Robinson took over as chairman and appointed Colin Appleton as manager to change fortunes on and off the pitch as the faith of the fans were restored as City won promotion in 1982-83.

The side featured Brian Marwood, Tony Norman, Steve McClaren, Garreth Roberts, Les Mutrie, Billy Askew and Billy Whitehurst. The run continued as the side missed out on promotion by one goal in 1983-84. Appleton departed to be replaced by player-boss Brian Horton.

 

Horton took the side to Division Two in 1984-85 as Richard Jobson and later Garry Parker were added to the squad. Eddie Gray replaced Horton in June 1988, with chairman Robinson later admitting his error in the sacking.

He departed with Martin Fish taking over as chairman when City were relegated in 1990-91 with Terry Dolan as manager. Star players Dean Windass and Alan Fettis were sold as the team went down to the fourth tier Division Three in 1995-96.

The Tigers finished seventeenth in 1996-97, their lowest ever finish. Fans protests led to Needler selling the club to former tennis player and leisure centre businessman David Lloyd who appointed Mark Hateley as player-manager.

The team finished just above the drop zone before Warren Joyce was put in charge in November 1998 with City bottom of the table and looking relegation to the Conference in the face. ‘The Great Escape’ was achieved with players such as Justin Whittle, Neil Mann, Gary Brabin and Jon Whitney becoming heroes.

Brian Little arrived as manager in April 2000 and took the side to the play-offs in 2000-01 where they went out to Leyton Orient. This was despite the club being briefly locked out of Boothferry Park and threatened by the liquidators after Lloyd had sold the club to a consortium but kept ownership of the ground.

Adam Pearson led a new consortium who eased any fears of closure and funds were ploughed into the club as the local council started work on a new stadium for City and Hull FC at The Circle in West Park where Hull Cricket Club were based.

 

Pearson, in an error he later apologised for, replaced Little with Jan Mølby in April 2002 who signed future legend Ian Ashbee, before being succeeded by Peter Taylor in October 2002. City lost their final game 1-0 at Boothferry Park against Darlington in front of a crowd of 14,162 on December 14th 2002.

The club moved a mile nearer to the city back to familiar pre-war surroundings to the newly built KC Stadium on Boxing Day 2002 when Hartlepool United were beaten 2-0 with 22,3019 fans in attendance. The club history from that point can be read about here.

My Boothferry Park Memories

Apparently my first visit was for a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on September 16^th 1967, when a delayed train meant we got there 30 minutes into the game. My love affair would be directed by us visiting Auntie Janet and Uncle Alan Bean, who would go to games with us from Cottingham.

It also meant that midweek games could be attended as we didn’t have a car, and the last train back to Scarborough left too early. We were there in August 1970 for the semi-final of the Watney Cup when Manchester United won the first ever game in England to be decided on penalties. Keeper Ian McKechnie decided the tie by blasting his kick against the crossbar.

Twelve months later, we saw City defeat the touring Japan national team 5-0. We would travel through as a family for the day at least twice a season as it was a good afternoon for my Mum shopping while we headed to the match.

It was was very exciting to a young lad who was used to a diet of watching his Dad play locally or going to The Athletic Ground, Scarborough. My Dad had been going to watch City virtually from Boothferry opening and he had seen all the greats in crowds of over 40,000 over the years.

We would park and then walk along Calvert Lane stopping to see the engines at the fire station and then Dad and Alan would choose where we’d sit from the large ticket booth outside the North Stand. Programme sellers were in a square open booth further along.

 

Once inside I struggled to work out why the players tunnel seemed to have been moved if we were sat at the other end to the previous occasion. Oh, for the innocence of childhood! Small light blue mobility cars parked at the front of the North Stand. Ladies would do marching displays.

McKechnie started a craze at the ground when he announced his love of oranges in the media. Every time he took goal in front of the South Stand, he would be greeted with a shower of oranges being thrown from everywhere! The South Stand were always good to keepers and generally applauded custodians of both sides as they took their positions.

 

Boothferry Park back then was a superb ground with an immaculate playing surface with six massive floodlight pylons which could be seen from miles around. Its other unique feature was Boothferry Park Halt railway station.

This brought home fans on special trains to and from Paragon station in the city centre as well as the old ‘Football Specials’ carrying away fans. The platform led directly to turnstiles serving the Kempton and South Stand. The last train left in 1986 due to safety and financial reasons.

 

The first place you came across from Boothferry Road was the North Stand. It was a fine structure, topped by a large clock with seating and terracing and a supporter’s club built upstairs onto the back.

Sadly, both booths and the stand were demolished around 1980 to be replaced by a cut-price supermarket and narrow terracing, because of one of City's financial crisis'. It was where visiting supporters were located in its later years. The ground was never the same again after the North Stand went.

 

To its left of here was a decent sized terracing with a roof covering a large part of it. This was the East Stand or ‘The Kempton’. City's more vocal fans stood in there before it was declared unsafe. The section nearest the North Stand was for away fans for many years. It was a spartan facility, but I loved it in there.

On the right stood the Main or Best Stand. This had a large section of seating with a small paddock, or The Well as it was called, at the front. In the 60's the facilities were chic and modern, but by the end outdated and uncared for.

A TV gantry was fitted into the roof which gave an outstanding view. A railway steam train nameplate looked down from above the player’s tunnel. The far end was home to the South Stand, aka Bunkers Hill.

This had a large terracing backed by a large section of seats. The section nearest the Best Stand was home to the vocal City fans during one of several periods when The Kempton was deemed unsafe in the late 80's and early 90's.

Stuart Pearson and John Kaye were my heroes as I became more aware of the game and its nuances, as I was a bit young to remember Waggy and Chillo, Ken Wagstaff and Chris Chilton.

Crowd hooliganism was rife, so we always sat. I recall us arriving at Hull Paragon with an announcement going out. Dad gathered us up and down towards the Market as it warned that a football special of Nottingham Forest fans was due and there had been trouble onboard.

February 1973 was a memorable occasion when we were unable to get seats for the fourth round FA Cup tie against West Ham United as a gate of over 30,000 turned out. Police horses at the back of The Kempton were trying to keep control as fans clashed.

The Hammers brought a real mob with them. A copper onboard his horse got hold of a long haired misbehaving cockney, gave his horse a kick and ran off with the miscreant screaming. Can you imagine that today?

 

City won 1-0 through a Ken Houghton strike. The crowd was so packed, Dad had to lift me and my brother Paul, who loved the occasions more than the match, onto his shoulders so we could see periods of the game in turn.

I was lucky to see Pearson at his best before I went to bed heartbroken on the eve of the 1974 FA Cup final after News at Ten had broken the news that he had been transferred to Manchester United.

In November 1974 we saw that seasons Cup Finalists, Fulham, complete with the late great Bobby Moore and Alan Mullery in their line-up. A month later our traditional pre-Christmas outing saw us sit in the West Stand for the first time with Grandad Dale for the 1-1 draw with Southampton.

We tasted more real crowd disorder in October 1976 in Billy Bremner's City debut against Nottingham Forest. The away fans were in the Kempton and fought a continuous running battle with the City fans stood in the South Stand.

How Billy must have enjoyed scoring the winner against his old mate, Brian Clough. Not so lucky was City forward, Jeff Hemmerman, who had four goals disallowed for offside! The next season us stand in the North Stand for the first time.

There was just Dad and we I against Leicester City in the FA Cup. The Tigers went down 1-0 in another volatile atmosphere. We went to this game as consolation for us not going to watch Scarborough at Brighton in the third round on the same day, as it was deemed too far away to travel.

We stopped going after that as Scarborough were having a good time of it and City hit a terrible slump, though I never stopped following their fortunes. I took plenty of stick at school and then college in Scarborough, particularly from Leeds United fans.

In April 1981 Nick went to his first City game which started a lifetime love affair in him. Dad asked us if we would rather to go to the Leeds v Liverpool game, but I was having none of it. I did my young brother a real favour! He'd previously knocked me for supporting City.

The Terriers were heading towards promotion and City relegation, but the Tigers overcame the form book to win 2-1. The gate was only about 5,000 but nearly everyone was packed around the North-East corner with both sets of fans verbally abusing each other in my last ever time in the North Stand.

My brother Nick with Emlyn Hughes who finished his career with City in the early 80's.

Within a minute the City fans were celebrating as a shot going wide hit the referee and went in for the winner. Happy days. Once Nick attended the Huddersfield home game there was no looking back. It also revived my eagerness to start attending again as I was old enough to go alone.

A couple of years later with Scarborough having an awful time, Don Robinson took over as City chairman. He installed ex Boro legendary manager Colin Appleton and things started going right instantly as he sorted the finances out and was strict with the purse strings. Dad new Colin so it also gave him an added interest to start attending occasionally.

I became a regular, taking the train, with several mates joining me from time to time as we were now at an age where we were earning and had a bit of Independence. We also enjoyed visiting a big city and being able to visit the sports and record shops.

City were flying and would win promotion in my first full season as a regular. The highlight of the 1982-83 campaign came following the home game against Blackpool. Robinson had been in the Kempton before the game and signed so many people’s hands.

Robinson wasn't short on stunts to get fans onside. He'd introduced Tigercola which raised money, went round the edge of the pitch giving fans champagne, arranged a Trans Atlantic Cup as City went on to play Tampa Bay Rowdies and proclaimed that City would be the first club to play on the moon. We loved it.

This was a strange gesture, but he invited all those he signed to the player’s lounge after the game. The week before there had been trouble at the York City away game. He had plans to redress the club name.

He didn't turn up at the appointed place, but he put an announcement in the Hull Daily Mail that all those who he'd let down had to meet at the ground for the Crewe Alexandra game the following week at 11am where he met us and took us around on a tour before giving us drinks in the boardroom.

Don Robinson

In return we went round the pitch at half time with a blanket collection to pay for any damage at York. When he found out I lived in Scarborough, he gave me a lift home in his chauffeured car, making the driver stop on route to buy me a Green Un sports paper.

A sign he was doing it right was when 15,000 attended the derby against Scunthorpe United when just a mile away 12,000 watched Hull FC in the Rugby League Challenge Cup. All this in a supposed rugby city!

By now I was taking Nick with me to games on the train. This must have been a great adventure for an eleven-year-old. It obviously had a great impression on him as he still follows the club, with his daughter Sally and son Stan also becoming City fans.

The following season City missed out on promotion while I was away at college, so I only got to a few home games. I was at Turf Moor when a 3-0 win was needed to surpass Sheffield United. The game ended in a heartbreaking 2-0 as Appleton resigned.

City put it right the following season as they played in some fantastic games to go up, including beating Derby County 3-2 after trailing by two goals. Billy Whitehurst and Andy Flounders scored the goals as Garreth Roberts led the midfield while Peter Skipper and Stan McEwan were brilliant at the back with Tony Norman outstanding in goal.

I bought a Season Pass, as they are termed in Hull for the 1985-86 Second Division season, as the EFL Championship is now called. There were buses to games from Scarborough and I met a load of great mates and had some fantastic times, not least as City defeated Leeds more often than not.  

I went to nearly every home game for a couple of years before the lure of Scarborough's promotion year and my lack of money and general malaise meant I became irregular in my appearances.

I still went occasionally, enjoying my day whenever I did go. I was at the FA Cup fifth round tie against Liverpool in February 1989 and led mates to an opening day eventful day out and win against Stoke City in August 1992. Also, a freezing cold Easter outing against Brighton & Hove Albion when seeing Paul Heaton in the pub before the game was the highlight.

It was the strangest thing when I first stood in the away end for a Yorkshire & Humberside Cup game with Scarborough. It was awful when the Boro fans taunted the City faithful. Then came the horrible 1998-99 season. 

This was shear hell. Both City and Boro were in line for the one relegation place into the Conference. I had been to see City v Leyton Orient and they were awful. It’s as well we had a decent little pub run to compensate!

Scarborough were on a similar run. Both clubs appointed new managers to try and save them, Colin Addison at Boro and Warren Joyce at City. On Easter Saturday the teams met at Boothferry Park with the atmosphere in the pubs electric and nerve racking.

Queues to get in were obviously larger than anticipated. The official gate was over 14,000 but some say there was over 19,000. Sections of the ground that were officially out of bounds on safety grounds were flung open.

When City went ahead, I thought the stands were going to topple over with the noise. Boro equalised late on through Jamie Hoyland and our end went crackers. It was an amazing day. Scarborough unfortunately went down, while City, thank goodness, survived. It was my last ever time inside the grand old place.

Nick shows Sally where we spent so many happy days

In December 2006, Nick and I went to the Cardiff City home game with Sally. We stopped off at the decaying old place to show her where we had so many great times. I always looked out for the floodlights on the train to Bridlington on route to watch Scarborough Athletic.

The stands and terracing of Boothferry Park were demolished in January 2008 before the floodlights were taken down in early 2011. New housing was built in its place. Thankfully City are remembered through streets being named Boothferry Park Halt, Jensen Mews, Black & Amber Way, Tigers Way, Legends Way and Bunkers Hill Road.

Where we drank

On adventurous big days on the pop, we'd go in Parker's, now the nearest pub to the KC, and then walk on to the Silver Cod, home of the notorious Silver Cod Squad, The Malt Shovel and then the always packed Three Tuns which was just under the railway bridge opposite the North Stand. Various city centre bars also received my cash!

Did you know?

Boothferry Park once hosted an FA Cup second replay between Leeds United and Sunderland on 20 March 1967 over 40,000 fans attended, with Leeds winning 2–1. It was standard procedure in the pre penalty shoot-out days for second and subsequent replays to be held on neutral grounds.

Leeds also played a First Division ‘home’ game at Boothferry Park in 1971 for the only time top flight football was played at the ground, as Elland Road was close following crowd trouble the previous season.

On 16th February 1972, Boothferry Park hosted a full international match between Northern Ireland and Spain. The result was drawn at 1–1. This was when Northern Ireland had to play outside the country because of terrorism.

Boothferry Park was also the scene of a rugby league international when it hosted the 1st Ashes test of the 1982 Kangaroo Tour. The Aussies ran in 8 tries to nil in a 40-4 thrashing watched by a vocal crowd of 26,771.

The ground staged many England under 23 games, before the introduction of the under 21s, in the 60's and early 70's, such was the quality of the pitch and stadium.

Many Thanks

In no particular order, many thanks to the following players for making me love the game, the club and my days out at City so much: Tony Norman, Billy Whitehurst, Keith Edwards, Andy Flounders, Stuart Pearson, Stan McEwan, Peter Skipper, Les Mutrie, Steve McClaren, Andy Payton, Andy Saville, Richard Jobson, Garry Parker, Billy Askew, Dennis Booth, Jeff Wealands, Frankie Bunn, Bobby Doyle, John Hawley, Brian Horton, Ken Houghton, Ian Butler, John Kaye, Brian Marwood, Garreth Roberts, Gary Swann.

Thanks also to all the great blokes from Bridlington, Scarborough and Hull who I enjoyed some great memories at Boothferry as well as on the road for away games. I’m delighted many of us stay in touch and occasionally meet for beers.

Thanks to my Dad for giving me a great club to follow alongside my beloved Scarborough FC and Scarborough Athletic.

Finally, I dedicate this blog to one of the lads. Nick Groombridge was a great a fan as any club could wish to have. He remained loyal even in the darkest days. He was everybody's friend, a true gentleman who didn't have a malicious bone in his body.

It was with great sadness to anyone who ever knew him when he was taken away from us so suddenly in January 2008, just a few days before the demolition of the ground started. There isn't day goes past when City are mentioned that I don't think of him.

RIP Nick. I'd like to think that City's run ever since was because you are loved elsewhere, and they put you in charge of the results section! I’m proud to be part of the group who meet each January to remember you. Some of us even end up at the match!

To view some Boothferry Park memories I thoroughly recommend a watch of the following by clicking here and here.

The photos of the inside of Boothferry Park have been taken from the internet. I cannot find any of the few pictures I ever took despite going in hundreds of times. Like all things when you are younger, you don't think of the future and think everything will last for ever. If only!