Huddersfield Giants

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Huddersfield Giants are a professional rugby league club based at the Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield, England. They play in the Super League in a distinctive strip of a claret shirt with thin gold hoops, claret shorts and claret and gold hooped socks and are known colloquially as "Fartown"

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History

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The founding

The earliest record of a football match being played in the Huddersfield area is in 1848, when a team of men from Hepworth took on a team of men from Holmfirth near Whinney Bank in Holmfirth. Hepworth won a close fought game which "exhibited the usual amount of confusions, bloody noses, etc" and took the prize of £5 which had been jointly donated by each side.

There may have been many other games organised along similar lines but there appears to have been no formal structure to sport in the Huddersfield area until the opening of the Apollo Gymnasium by an Irishman named Professor John Le Blanc on August 3rd 1850. At this time Le Blanc's gymnasium was the only venue in the town where young men could take part in physical activities. Le Blanc offered the opportunity to participate in fencing, swimming, bowling, cricket and many other sports. Foot races were regularly organised and illegal prize fights were reputedly held on the nearby moors.

In 1864 the towns's theatre was commandeered by the local Volunteer Rifle Corps for use as a drill hall. In turn, the Apollo Gymnasium was turned into the Gymnasium Theatre. This left the keen athletes of Le Blanc's club with nowhere to go and they responded by forming a more organised athletics association. In an advertisement headed "Huddersfield Athletic Club" they invited "gentlemen desirous of becoming members" to a public meeting at 8 o'clock on the evening of November 16th, 1864 at the Queen Hotel. The meeting went ahead, a hundred names were registered and a committee was formed. Within a month a new gymnasium was in service in a basement on Back John William Street.

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The first match and initial growth

On January 27th, 1866 twenty members of the Huddersfield Athletic Club (HAC) agreed to play a football match against twenty of the Huddersfield Rifle Corps at Rifle Field in Trinity Street. Although the result was a scoreless draw, a large crowd was attracted. In light of this success the HAC agreed to start a formal football section which was to commence play at the beginning of December 1866. Initially the HAC made no contribution to the support of the football club and each paying member was forced to pay a subscription of 2s 6d. As the football club grew, however, it became a useful recruiting tool for the HAC. In 1869 six matches were played and by 1870 three of the club's players had been selected to represent Yorkshire. By 1872 there were so many players that a second team was formed.

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Fartown

The growth in popularity of the club and the need for better facilities lead to the HAC approaching St John's Cricket Club with a proposal to merge the two clubs. The cricket club had been formed in 1866 at Hillhouse and had moved to a new ground, prevously owned by the proprietor of the George Hotel at Fartown in 1867. By 1875, when amalgamation talks began, over £800 had been spent on developing the new ground.

At a meeting on November 27th 1875, at the Thornhill Arms Inn the two clubs agreed to merge to from the Huddersfield Cricket & Athletics Club. The motion was passed by 55 votes to 37.

Initially the Fartown ground was used for athletics festivals whilst the football section stayed at Rifle Field, but alterations made in the summer of 1878 meant that football could begin at the start of the 1878/79 season with the visit of Manchester Rangers on November 2nd.

The new ground would become the club's home for 114 years and would provide the club's famous "Fartown" nickname.

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Northern Union and golden years

In 1895 the club were founder members of the Northern Rugby Football Union, (later the Rugby Football League).

The club has seen many ups and downs in its long history, but for the first 60 years of rugby league it was one of the powerhouses of the game, with only Wigan as rivals in terms of trophies won.

The club's golden period came around the time of the First World War. The club was able to assemble a team of players from across the British Empire who swept all before them. Known as "The Team of All Talents", they were lead by Harold Wagstaff and are still regarded as one of the finest rugby teams to have ever played.

During that period, Huddersfield were untouchable. In the season 1914-15 they became only the second team to win "all four cups" when they lifted the Championship, the Challenge Cup, the Yorkshire Cup, and the Yorkshire League.

Two members of the team, centre Harold Wagstaff and wing Albert Rosenfeld, were honoured by inclusion in the original Rugby League Hall of Fame. They were later joined by the Cumbrian second row Dougie Clark. Of just seventeen players to be elected to the Hall of Fame, no fewer than three were teammates in that famous Huddersfield side. In total, Huddersfield boast five representatives in the Hall of Fame, more than any other club.

In 2005, Rosenfeld was accepted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame with his official induction to take place at the 2009 Maccabiah games. He is the only rugby league player to be honoured in this way.

The particular fame of "The Team of All Talents" sprung from their extraordinary three quarter play. In 1911-12 Rosenfeld became the first player to score more than 50 tries in a season - a feat previously thought to be impossible. That season he scored 78. His wing partner, Stanley Moorhouse scored 52. In 1912-13, Rosenfeld scored 56, and then in 1913-14 he broke his own record with 80 tries, a record which stands to this day.

On 28th February 1914, the club defeated Swinton Park by a record 119-2 (Rosenfeld contributing 7 tries) in a Challenge Cup tie at Fartown. The record would stand until 26th November 1994 when the Huddersfield club broke their own World Record by defeating Blackpool Gladiators 142-4 in a Challenge Cup tie at the McAlpine Stadium - centre Greg Austin scoring 9 tries on his way to 52 tries that season, a World Record for a centre.

Huddersfield's dominance prior to the First World War was such that they went unbeaten in 38 consecutive matches before the suspension of the league in 1914. After the war, the first 5 games were won for a 43 match unbeaten run over 6 years which still stands as a record today. The unbeaten run consisted of 28 League matches, 8 Yorkshire Cup-ties, 5 Northern Union Challenge Cup-ties and 2 League championship play-offs. In addition, Huddersfield were drawing 8-8 in a Yorkshire Cup-tie that was abandoned because of fog and replayed.

There can be no doubt that the war cut short a golden age for the club, and whilst trophies would continued to be collected until the mid sixties Huddersfield would never again return to the heights of that magical period.

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Decline

By the seventies, the club had become a shadow of its former self, the old Fartown ground had fallen into disrepair and the club frequently finished in the lower reaches of the league. An abysmal 1984 attempt to revive the club by adopting the nickname of Huddersfield Barracudas was shortlived.

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Revival

The revival of the club began when Alex Murphy took over as coach in 1991. Within a year, promotion to the Second Division had been achieved, and there was pride once again in the famous Claret and Gold shirt.

In 1992, the club moved to Huddersfield Town A.F.C.'s home ground at Leeds Road, before taking a share in the Galpharm Stadium in 1994.

Since then the club has returned to the top division of British rugby league. In 1998, the club was promoted to Super League, and in late 1999 merged with Sheffield Eagles almost purely for financial reasons. This arrangement lasted only a season before the Huddersfield name was reverted to. The upheaval did not help performances on the field and relegation followed in 2001.

In 2002 the club went unbeaten for the entire 28 game league season, drawing only one match. Only Hull FC had previously been unbeaten for a season, although that was only 26 games it was without dropping a single league point. Along the way the team accumulated 1,156 points to equal the record for points in a league season achieved in 8 more games by Leigh in 1986. This performance secured promotion back to the Superleague for the 2003 season.

In 2003 the club consolidated their position and in 2004 improved again, making their first appearance in the Challenge Cup semi-finals since 1971.

The beginning of the 2005 Super League season saw the club make its highest-profile signing in fifty years when Australian centre Michael De Vere signed from the Brisbane Broncos, becoming the clubs first Australian international player since Pat Devery in the 1950s.

For the kick off of the 2006 season the club unveiled a host of new signings to strengthen the squad including the iconic New Zealand international scrum half, Robbie Paul.

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Current squad

As of 26 January, 2006:

Number Nationality Player Position Previous Club
1 Template:Flagicon Paul Reilly FB
2 Template:Flagicon Martin Aspinwall W Wigan Warriors
3 Template:Flagicon James Evans C Canberra Raiders
4 Template:Flagicon Michael De Vere C Brisbane Broncos
5 Template:Flagicon Stuart Donlan W Halifax RLFC
6 Template:Flagicon Chris Thorman SO Parramatta Eels
7 Template:Flagicon Robbie Paul SH Bradford Bulls
8 Template:Flagicon Eorl Crabtree P
9 Template:Flagicon Brad Drew H Canberra Raiders
10 Template:Flagicon James Gannon P Halifax RLFC
11 Template:Flagicon Chris Nero SR St George Illawarra Dragons
12 Template:Flagicon Steve Snitch SR Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
13 Template:Flagicon Stephen Wild LF Wigan Warriors
14 Template:Flagicon Stuart Jones SR St Helens RFC
15 Template:Flagicon Paul Jackson P Castleford Tigers
16 Template:Flagicon Paul March H Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
17 Template:Flagicon Paul Smith SR Rochdale Hornets
18 Template:Flagicon Wayne McDonald P Leeds Rhinos
19 Template:Flagicon Jonathan Grayshon P
20 Template:Flagicon Andy Raleigh SR Hull KR
21 Template:Flagicon Mat Gardner W Leeds Rhinos
22 Template:Flagicon Albert Torrens W St George Illawarra Dragons
23 Template:Flagicon Tom Hemingway FB
24 Template:Flagicon Boluagi Fagborun W
25 Template:Flagicon Simon George LF
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Honours

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Records

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Player records

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Team records

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All time British Rugby League Records

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Hall of Fame members

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