Happy 130th birthday to Rugby League

Today, 29^th August, marks the 130^th anniversary of the famous meeting at the George Hotel in Huddersfield that signalled the break away of the Northern Union from the RFU in Twickenham and the creation of the game of Rugby League.

The book ‘Rugby League: A People’s History’, which was published in 2020 was authored by the highly esteemed historian Tony Collins, it charts the remarkable strides the game has made since 1895 and the special place it still holds in the communities it serves and represents.

Here we include extracts from the book that recalls the crucial role the Leeds club played in those earlier years of the game.

Leeds had been part of the early rumblings about the need to find a way forward for the professional game.

"The game had now reached a period when another radical change must be considered, and that was the reduction of players from fifteen to thirteen,” said James Miller from the Leeds club and president of the Yorkshire Rugby Union, on the next steps in rugby’s evolution in 1892.

A year later, he tackled the thorny issue of broken time payments that would eventually split the game. He commented, “These men were constantly called upon to lose their wages in order to play for their country or their club. Why should not the working man be able to play the game on level terms with the gentleman?”

Just two weeks after the formation of the Northern Union, Halifax and Leeds proposed moving to thirteen-a-side rugby, with Leeds committee member Harry Sewell arguing:

We want to do away with that scrummaging, pushing and thrusting game, which is not rugby, and that is why I propose to abolish the line-out and reduce the number of forwards to six. The rugby public does not pay to see a lot of scrummaging.

Diversification, but of a unique kind, was a major reason for the success of Leeds rugby league club. The club owned Headingley Stadium, its joint home with Yorkshire County Cricket Club during the county’s golden age and a major Test match cricket venue. In 1927 Leeds announced its first-ever dividend payment to shareholders. The financial importance of cricket to Leeds is illustrated by their profit of £4,093 in the 1930-31 season, which exceeded the total profits of every other league club combined. In contrast, Swinton, who defeated them 14-7 in that seasons Championship final, recorded a loss of £76 in the same season.

But for most clubs the key factor in their survival was the activities of their supporters. Supporters’ clubs were first formed after the First World War and by 1923 there were enough in Yorkshire to start a county federation. In its first season it reported that Featherstone supporters raised £100 to assist the purchase of the Post Office Road ground and Huddersfield supporters raised £114 to pay the clubs heating bills. Bramley, Castleford, Hunslet, Keighley and Wakefield fans also raised money for ground improvements. Supporters’ clubs also organised player testimonial funds. Huddersfield fans collected almost £200 for Ben Gronow and Bramley's Lou Marshall was presented with £104 from their activities. In 1929 Bradford's supporters took over the running of the club's reserve team.

As well as fund raising, many supporters' clubs provided other services, all of it unpaid. At Bramley, Keighley and Wakefield, they produced the match-day programmes. Most, if not all, organised excursions to away matches and to London for the Challenge Cup Final. The spirit of self-sacrifice and collectivity that underpinned this work was articulated by the journalist and staunch Huddersfield fan Stanley Chadwick: "Members of Northern League clubs are not only content to attend home matches but organise motor coach trips to away matches; run whist drives and concerts to augment club funds; scrub the pavilion floor, serve in the dry canteen, assist with programme selling, encourage the junior leagues, and indulge in many other activities. There is no loss of prestige in doing the most menial job, and men and women everywhere in the North are proud to help their club in this way."

‘Rugby League: A People’s History’ was published by Scratching shed Publications (www.scratchingshedpublishing.com)