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History of rugby league

The Manningham F.C. team that won the 1895–96 championship, posing with the shield awarded.[1] The club was the first rugby league champion of the Northern RFU and the first in the world. After a series of meetings in 1903 the club committee decided to leave the rugby code and switch to association football,[2] becoming current Bradford City A.F.C.

The history of rugby league as a separate form of rugby football goes back to 1895 in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire when the Northern Rugby Football Union broke away from England's established Rugby Football Union to administer its own separate competition.[3] Similar schisms occurred later in Australia and New Zealand in 1907. Gradually the rugby played in these breakaway competitions evolved into a distinctly separate sport that took its name from the professional leagues that administered it. Rugby league in England went on to set attendance and player payment records and rugby league in Australia became the most watched sport on television. The game also developed a significant place in the culture of France, New Zealand and several other Pacific Island nations, such as Papua New Guinea, where it has become the national sport.

  1. ^ "Early Days". A History of Bradford City Football Club. bantamspast.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  2. ^ Frost. Bradford City A Complete Record 1903–1988. p. 11.
  3. ^ Fagan, Sean (2008). League of Legends: 100 Years of Rugby League in Australia. National Museum of Australia. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-876944-64-3.[dead link‍]

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