![]() ![]() It might have been because there were too many of them to adopt the Bradford name and besides, a village identity was more distinctive. Notable is that none of the second tier or so-called ‘junior’ clubs, Manningham FC included, adopted a Bradford identity. ![]() By the 1880s however most of those had disappeared and the majority of second tier rugby clubs who sat in the pecking order below the two senior clubs in Bradford tended to have geographic names linked to their village or suburb such as Bowling FC, Heaton FC, Wibsey FC or Shipley FC which identified that club as representative of its home area. After its own conversion in 1907, the Park Avenue club clung to its identity as Bradford FC as a demonstration of its historical status.ĭuring the 1870s, emergent rugby clubs following in the wake of Bradford FC all tended to have Bradford names. When soccer was introduced to Valley Parade in 1903 the club was anxious to stamp its own authority as the city club and hence the name Bradford City AFC was an unsurprising choice. Manningham FC for example resented the attempts by Bradford FC to derive the monopoly status as the town club to the exclusion of itself. The rivalry between the Bradford and Manningham clubs was intense and a dimension of it was the bragging rights as the town’s representative. Manningham FC was not established until much later (formed in 1880) and emerged as a challenger to Bradford FC even if it had not originally been intended to compete against the Park Avenue club. In Germany the club would have been known as 1FC Bradford (meaning the first or leading side in the town). Bradford FC had been the first club to be established in Bradford and considered it unnecessary and undesirable to adopt a suffix because it considered itself to be the Bradford football club. In Bradford there was a strong sense of hierarchy among the rugby clubs from the outset. Many of those converted to soccer – a good example of which was Manningham FC in 1903 – and it was a common phenomenon for local rugby clubs to abandon their code of football at the turn of the century. Until the end of the nineteenth century Bradford was very much a rugby centre and its earliest clubs were exclusively rugby sides. The detail is derived from my research into the origins of football in Bradford in the nineteenth century. Might Bradford City have been Bradford United, Bradford Albion or Bradford Rovers for example? The following is a summary of the Bradford identities adopted by the football clubs in the district and considers how they came about. Have you ever considered what other names might have been adopted by Bradford’s leading football clubs. ![]()
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