The 1903–04 season was the first season in Bradford City A.F.C.'s history, having been founded on 29 May 1903 and then elected into the Football League to replace Doncaster Rovers in the Second Division. They finished in 10th position in the league and reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup.

Bradford City were formed following a series of meetings during the first half of 1903 and replaced the former rugby league club of Manningham, whose Valley Parade ground they used. The club had already signed six players before they were accepted into the league before the rest of the side were later signed by a five-man committee. The board directors appointed Robert Campbell as the club's first manager. Bradford City's first game ended in a 2–0 defeat at Grimsby Town and the first home game resulted in another loss to Gainsborough Trinity. Club captain Johnny McMillan finished the top goalscorer with 14 league and two FA Cup goals.

Organised league football had been played in the West Riding of Yorkshire since 1894 in the West Yorkshire League, but no side from the county had played in the Football League. So on 30 January 1903, Scotsman James Whyte, a sub-editor of the Bradford Observer, met with Football Association representative John Brunt at Valley Parade, the home of the city's rugby league side Manningham Football Club, to discuss establishing a Football League club within Bradford. In May, Manningham's committee decided to swap codes from rugby to association football and so the Football League decided to invite Bradford City to join their league in a bid to introduce association football to the West Riding, the main sport in which was rugby league. The League voted in favour of replacing Doncaster Rovers, who had finished the 1902–03 season in 16th position in the Second Division, with Bradford City even though Bradford had yet to play a single game.

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