Manningham F.C.
| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Manningham Football Club |
| Founded | 1880 |
| Exited | 1903 |
| Former details | |
| Ground(s) | |
| Competition | RFL Championship |
| Records | |
| Champions | 1895-96 |
Manningham was an English rugby league football club based in Manningham, Bradford, the first champions of the Rugby Football League (then known as the Northern Rugby Football Union) in its first season. After seven seasons of rugby league, the club switched codes to Association football in 1903, becoming Bradford City Association Football Club.
In 1880, Manningham FC was formed after the Manningham Albion Club was disbanded. The club originally played at a field in Whetley Hill, known as Carlisle Road. Manningham FC played rugby football under the Rugby Football Union but later became a founding member of the breakway Northern Rugby Football Union (later renamed the Rugby Football League) in 1895. In the new competition's first season, Manningham finished on top of the ladder, becoming history's first rugby league champions.
In 1886, the club moved to Valley Parade, a ground that was hacked out of a hillside over a few months. In the 1896-7 season the Northern Union's championship was split into two separate county competitions with Manningham competing in the Yorkshire division. The club performed strongly again and almost won the Yorkshire Senior Competition but in the end fell short on the table by just one win.
However, the club fell upon hard times after being relegated, and in 1903 only the successful staging of an archery tournament kept the club going.
On 30 January 1903, Scotsman James Whyte, a sub-editor of the Bradford Observer met Football Association representative John Brunt at Valley Parade, the home of Manningham Football Club, to discuss establishing a Football League club within the city. A series of meetings was held, and on 29 May 1903, at the 23rd annual meeting of Manningham FC, the committee decided to leave the rugby league code and switch to association football, becoming Bradford City A.F.C..
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