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was a strange beginning for Bradford City Football Club,
as they were elected to the Football League even before
they had a team !! The idea was to introduce the eleven
man game into the area to try and break the stranglehold
that rugby had there. That was in 1903 and it only took
them five years to assemble a team worthy of taking the
Second Division Championship. Then, in 1911, their best
ever season saw them finish fifth in the First Division
and win the FA Cup. Their team that triumphed over
Newcastle United in the replay that day contained eight
Scotsmen and it was a fitting victory as the trophy had
been re-crafted by a silversmith from .... Bradford. On
the trip to Manchester for the second game, the charabanc
carrying the fans to the match stopped at a crossroads
next to a farm and a chicken popped into the bus,
unbeknown to the passengers. When the destination was
reached, the fowl jumped out and followed the supporters
into the ground. They regarded it as such a good luck
symbol after the win, that they implored the cup to keep
the pugnacious bird. The club declined, but did, however,
adopt the Bantam in name as the club's nickname and
symbol to portray their fighting spirit. Following these
heady days, the club slipped from grace (a lovely girl)
and found themselves in Division 4 as their fortunes
fluctuated during the swinging sixties. When things did
turn in their favour, what should have been a day for
celebration ended in disaster. An 11,000 crowd had
gathered on 11 May 1985 to cheer on Terry Yorath's
Bradford side that had claimed the 3rd Division title.
Just before half-time, someone noticed smoke coming up
through the wooden floor of the main stand, which had
served the City fans for 77 years. The alarm was raised,
but nobody had realised that a pile of rubbish had
ignited below the seating and within 5 minutes, the whole
stand was ablaze. Tremendous feats of heroism from fans
and staff alike were witnessed by the television cameras
that were at Valley Parade, as attempts were made to
rescue people from the stand with the roof alight and
raining burning material from above. In total, 56 people
lost their lives that sad day and 200 suffered burns.
Following a report into the fire, safety was tightened up
at grounds across the country to ensure that a disaster
like this would never happen again.
It was
suggested that following the fire, the club should
relocate at a new venue, but local feeling was strongly
against this and Valley Parade has (literally) risen from
the ashes with a smart new Pulse stadium. The team have
consolidated their position in the First Division, with
the help of some exotic signings (i.e the Brazilian Edinho, not Eddie
Youds). Their last day survival in the Premier League in 2000 at least
gave them another year to build on before they hit the bottom three of
the table and stayed there for most of the season. So, in 2001,
their odyssey came to an end and they will have to rebuild from the
First Division. Successive managers had little chance to make a
difference to their plight and with ever more financial difficulties
(the club went into administration for the second time in February
2004), the club slipped into Division Two at the end of the 200304
season and the future looked difficult for manager Bryan Robson.
FAMOUS
PLAYERS:- Cec Podd, Charles Capon, Ian Ormondroyd, Stuart
McCall, Harry Hampton, Bobby Campbell, David
"Bronco" Layne.
FAMOUS FANS : -
John Helm (Football
commentator), John
Holmes (Actor - 'Gonch' in "Grange Hill"), George
Layton (Comedy actor - "It Ain't Half Hot Mum",
"Duty Free"), Joe Johnson (Ex snooker World Champion), Tony
Wright (Musician - Terrorvision)
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