Bradford Bulls News
The Bradford Bulls, or Bradford Northern to older fans, are one of the most historic clubs in the sport of Rugby League and have been amongst the biggest and most successful clubs in the world during their peak periods but they are a club who have also had lots of periods of struggle.
Despite their recent struggles, the Bradford Bulls are one of the most famous Rugby clubs in Britain and long with near neighbours Keighley, they can be admired for really progressing the sport into the summer era with lots of early success in the Super League.
Things have been much more of a struggle over the last decade or so and Bradford now find themselves in the 2nd tier of the sport but despite that, their maintain a large fanbase and lots of fans of their clubs still have an interest in them.
That leads to plenty of people searching for news relating to the club but outside of local media, it can be difficult to find the latest news coming out of the club, or at least that used to be the case, as we bring you all of the latest news from sources around the world relating to all aspects of the club including on the field and off of the field issues.
Bradford Bulls Breaking News
If you are a fan of the Bulls or of you are simply a fan of the sport wanting to know the breaking news relating to the club, you are in the right place as we bring you all of the Bradford Bulls breaking news stories from multiple sources.
Bradford Bulls Latest News Today
If you have heard a rumour to do with the club or if somebody has mentioned something at work/school/university, save time searching for the latest news stories from today as we bring you all of the latest headlines from across the globe.
If a story is of interest to you, all you need to do is click on the headlines and that will take you directly to the source itself for the full story.
Stadium
The Bulls home ground is Odsal Stadium, a ground that is one of the most famous and historic yet unwanted stadiums in the country.
The large bowl of a stadium can host around 25,000 when fully maintained and has provided some of the greatest sights of the Super League era as the club really put on a show during the early years.
History was made at the ground when an official attendance of 102,569 packed into the ground for the 1954 Challenge Cup final reply between Warrington and Halifax- although it is believed by most that many more found their way into the ground on that day.
Nowadays, the ground and its high maintenance costs are somewhat of a burden to the club and has even left the club having to play out of the city in recent years.
Location
As you would expect, the Bulls are located in the West Yorkshire city of Bradford, right in the middle of the sports heartland and close to many other clubs including rivals Leeds, Huddersfield, and Halifax.
About
The clubs origins began way back in 1863 as Bradford Football club but it was in 1907 when the current club was formed as Bradford Northern.
Since then, they have gone on to win all that there is to win on both the national level and on the global level.
The clubs success has led to their playing strip of a mostly white shirt with a red, black, and yellow chevron v across the chest been amongst the most recognisable in the sport.
History
As mentioned, the club grew out of the Bradford Football Club who were formed in 1863 and joined the Rugby Football Union.
The club endured a nomadic early existence until 1879 when the club found a new home after Bradford Football Club and Bradford Cricket Club bough Park Avenue.
Soon after, the clubs first big success was achieved when they won the Yorkshire Cup in 1884 but the fractured nature of things back then led to the senior clubs in Yorkshire falling out with the Yorkshire Rugby Football Union as they wanted a league of their own and along with those top clubs, they wanted control.
The big schism in Rugby occurred soon after and Bradford, along with city neighbour Manningham FC made the break and formed the Northern Rugby Football Union, the forerunner of the Rugby Football League.
Bradford enjoyed some early success in the breakaway code including finishing joint top of the league in the 1903-04 season along with Salford, before going on to win a play-off to pick up their first title.
Soon after, in the 1905-06 season, the club defeated Salford to win their first Challenge Cup and in the next season they would go on to with the Yorkshire County Cup.
Unfortunately, the clubs success was leading to problems away from the field as Association Football saw the city as a location dominated by Rugby but that could be a hotbed of Football.
Manningham were tempted to make the switch to Association Football and Bradford City were formed but things got messy for Bradford as they held a vote on whether to switch from the Northern Union to Association Football but RFU officials tried to hijack it and get the club to switch back to Rugby Union, but the clubs chairman went behind everyone’s back and switched the club to Football- an act known as ‘The Great Betrayal’.
The club would become Bradford Park Avenue but the majority of the clubs members and board wanted to stick playing the Northern Union code and that led to the formation of Bradford Northern, the club who would go onto become the Bradford Bulls.
Northern’s first ground was the Greenfield Athletic Ground in Dudley Hill but they soon moved to Birch Lane in 1908 but they constantly wanted to find a new and bigger home for themselves and eventually a former quarry, used as a waste dump, in the Odsal district of Bradford was chosen and the biggest ground in the country outside of London was built.
Northern played their first every match at the new ‘Wembley of the North’ in 1934 but they had to wait until the next decade for more success, although when it did come, titles and trophies didn’t stop with the 1940’s been one of the glory periods for the club.
One notable moment in that run came in the 1947 Challenge Cup final in a match that Bradford defeated Leeds to win the title but it was the fact that King George VI was in attendance that grab the headlines as it was the first Rugby League match to have a reigning monarch there in person and presented Bradford with the trophy.
In 1952, Bradford took on the tour Kiwis in the first ever floodlit match of Rugby in either code before they made history again in 1953 when a record crowd of 69,429 watched the hosts take on Huddersfield in the 3rd round of the cup.
History making moments continued in 1954 when the club, alongside Leigh, were the first to hold a match on a Sunday.
Things started to go downhill in the late 1950s and into the 1960’s and with crowds dropping down to an all-time low of just 324 fans who showed up for their match against Barrow in 1963, it wasn’t too surprising to see the club go bust and out of business by the middle of the season.
A meeting in 1964 saw a meeting of around 1,500 people decide to form a new club and on the 20th of July 1964 a new Bradford Northern was launched and by August they had a squad put together to take on Hull KR in front of around 14,500 fans.
The newly re-formed club won the 1965-66 Yorkshire County Cup, reached the 1972-73 Challenge Cup final and were promoted to the First Division in 1974.
In the 1978-79 seaosn, the club win the Premiership by defeating Widnes in the final and that led to plenty of success in the late 70’s and in the early 1980’s, helped by the emerging Brian Noble, but the club found themselves having to sell top stars as cash problem hit them once again.
In 1985 Ellery Hanley left for Wigan for a then record transfer fee of £80,000 and by the end of 1987, 22 players were transfer listed including Phil Ford who had a £120,000 price tag.
Thankfully the club did managed to solve its issues and by the start of the summer era, they were back on top of the sport leading a era that would become known as the clubs ‘Golden Era’.
For the summer era of the sport, Bradford Northern would change there name to the Bradford Bulls and they would enjoy instant success with new head coach Mathew Elliot guiding them to the Super League title.
Former star player Brian Nobel would take over in 2000 and that would lead to the club winning all that there is to win for a top level club in the Grand Final in his first season, with Bradford then going on to face and defeat, the Newcastle Knights in the World Club Challenge.
The Bulls would enjoy lots more success, but a failure to improve their facilities and to invest on youths would come back to haunt them as following the loss of Nobel to Wigan, Bradford would star to drop down the league from challenger to strugglers.
To no ones real surprise, financial troubles soon followed and Bradford would end up in receivership come the 2012 season.
For the next few years, more issues would impact the club away from the field including administration and liquidation and with the club docked points for their financial woes, they would go on to be relegated to the 2nd tier in 2014.
The club would have a chance to gain promotion to the top flight once again in the 2016 when they faced Wakefield in the first ever Million Pound game but Wakefield would go onto win the game to keep their top flight presence.
Sadly that failure to be promoted, couple with big spending on established player the next season left the club heading into administration once again and in January 2017, the club were placed into liquidation.
A new club was established for the 2017 season, but they would start the seaosn with -12 points and in the bottom tier.
They soon found themselves back in the 2nd tier under the stewardship of John Kear but more problems for the club and the huge expense of playing at the giant Odsal Stadium left the club with no choice but to leave the city of Bradford and take up residence in the nearby town of Dewsbury.
Thankfully for their fans, the move would only last for around 18 months, with Bradford moving back to their former ground in May 2021.
Bradford Bulls News Headlines
The Bulls are a club who often find themselves making headlines and the next time that happens, you will be able to read them all on this very page as we bring you all of the latest Bradford Bulls new headlines from sources around the globe.
Bradford Bulls News Update
We bring you all of the latest news updates as soon as they happen.
