Sports ACADEMY
ANDY WRAY
Hull City Association Football Club (Hull City AFC) will spend its first-ever season in English football's top division in 2008-2009 when it joins the English Premier League (EPL). For the club known as the "Tigers", this is quite an achievement. Even if the club finishes at the bottom of the EPL, it will be its most successful season ever as the club has never won a major trophy, or even been in a major final.
Beginnings
Hull City AFC was created in June 1904, in the city of Kingston-upon-Hull by the River Humber on the east coast of northern England. The city was, and still is, dominated by its two successful rugby league clubs - Hull Football Club (Hull FC) and Hull Kingston Rovers - and so football has always struggled to establish itself in this city.
The club first played at The Boulevard, which was then the home of Hull FC, and played its first match in white shirts and black shorts against Notts County. The two clubs drew 2-2 before a healthy crowd of 6,000 people.
The friendship with the rugby club didn't last, however, and so the club sought the help of a club from another sport and played at the cricket ground on Anlaby road.
The club entered the football league in 1905, joining the second division and finishing in a very respectable fifth place. The team adopted its traditional colours of black and amber, wore a new kit of striped shirts and black shorts and quickly became known as the "Tigers".
A new ground was built a year later opposite the cricket ground as the club continued to grow rapidly. Hull then had its most successful season ever in 1909-1910, when it lost its final game 0-3 against its nearest rival, Oldham Athletic, and finished third, level on points with the victorious team but missed the promotion on goal-average by a minuscule margin of 0.29 of a goal.
Sadly for the Tigers, the dream of promotion to the top flight remained only a dream.
Brief successes
Previously, the club's greatest achievement was in 1930 when it reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup as a second division club, beating local rivals like Leeds United and Manchester City, and the mighty Newcastle United in the quarter-finals.
It also held the unconquerable Arsenal to a 2-2 draw at Elland road before losing narrowly 0-1 in the replay at Villa Park.
!In 1933, the club won its first trophy, when it was the champion of the third division (North) and repeated the feat in 1949.
Following this success, the club moved into a new stadium on the site of an old golf course at Boothferry Park in 1946, and had crowds approaching 50,000 people.
Then came the visit of Manchester United on Feb 26, 1949, that enticed a record 55,019 people into the stadium.
Dreams and reality
It all turned sour pretty quickly, however, and the club spent several decades in the lower divisions, with the third division (North) title in 1966 providing the only success before the club spent the 80s and the 90s continually spiralling downward toward oblivion.
The club fell to the bottom of the league. Though it managed to narrowly escape relegation from the league, it suffered severe financial problems, and was even locked out of its own ground twice due to unpaid bills.
After a series of takeovers and rescue missions, in Dec 2002, the club made a brave decision. While still in the bottom division of the Football League it joined with Hull FC, a rugby league club, and moved into a new 25,400-seat state-of-the-art stadium. At that time it was called the Kingston Communications Stadium, but today is is known as the KC Stadium. Following that wise move, a new dawn beckoned.
By 2005, the club was in the second tier, and the dream of playing in the top division became a possibility.
In May 2005, the dream became reality when Hull City AFC beat Bristol City 1-0 in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium to gain promotion to the top flight, for the very first time in its history, after more than a hundred years of trying.
QUESTIONS Understanding the story
1. Which club is the story about?
2. In which city is the club based?
3. Which other sport is popular in the city?
4. Has the club in the story had a successful history?
5. Why are they nicknamed the "Tigers"?
True or false?
1. The club has never played in the top division before this season.
2. The club has never won a major trophy.
3. The club once played in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
4. The club has always played in black and amber colours.
5. The city has two successful rugby union clubs.
Vocabulary
Match the words and phrases in bold in the story with the meanings below.
1. Achievement
2. Quickly
3. Winning
4. Extremely small
5. By a small amount
6. Spinning
7. Persuaded with an offer of a pleasurable experience
8. Became unpleasant
9. Nearing
10. Total destruction
What do you think?
What position will Hull City AFC finish in at the end of the 2008-09 season?
ANSWERS Understanding the story
1. Hull City AFC
2. Kingston-upon-Hull
3. Rugby League
4. No
5. Because they wear a black-and-amber kit
True or false?
1. True
2. True
3. True
4. False, it first played in white shirts
5. False, rugby league clubs
Vocabulary
1. Feat
2. Rapidly
3. Victorious
4. Minuscule
5. Narrowly
6. Spiralling
7. Enticed
8. Turned sour
9. Approaching
10. Oblivion
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