Huddersfield Giants
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Huddersfield Giants are a professional rugby league club based in Huddersfield, England. They play in a distinctive strip of a claret shirt with thin gold hoops, white shorts and claret and gold hooped socks.
Founded in 1864, they initially played at Rifle Field, before moving to Fartown in 1871. Despite leaving Fartown in 1992 to move to Leeds Road, the home ground of Huddersfield Town A.F.C., and then to the modern Galpharm Stadium (originally named the McAlpine Stadium) in 1994, the club are still referred to throughout the town as "Fartown"
In the early years the club played rugby union with some success, winning the Yorkshire Cup in 1890, but in 1895 were founder members of the Northern Rugby Football Union, (later the Rugby Football League)
The club has seen many ups and downs in its long history, but for the first 60 years of rugby league it was one of the powerhouses of the game, with only Wigan as rivals in terms of trophies won.
The club's golden period came around the time of the First World War. The club was able to assemble a team of players from across the British Empire who swept all before them. Known as "The Team of All Talents", they were lead by Harold Wagstaff and are still regarded as one of the finest rugby teams to have ever played.
During that period, Huddersfield were untouchable. In the season 1914-15 they became only the second team to win "all four cups" when they lifted the Championship, the Challenge Cup, the Yorkshire Cup, and the Yorkshire League. Two members of the team Harold Wagstaff and Albert Rosenfeld were honoured by inclusion as one of just fourteen players to be in the Rugby League Hall of Fame.
The particular fame of "The Team of All Talents" sprung from their extraordinary three quarter play. In 1911-12 Rosenfeld became the first player to score more than 50 tries in a season - a feat previously thought to be impossible. That season he scored 78. His wing partner, Stanley Moorhouse scored 52. In 1912-13, Rosenfeld scored 56, and then in 1913-14 he broke his own record with 80 tries, a record which stands to this day.
On 28th February 1914, the club defeated Swinton Park by a record 119-2 (Rosenfeld contributing 7 tries) in a Challenge Cup tie at Fartown. The record would stand until 26th November 1994 when the Huddersfield club broke their own World Record by defeating Blackpool Gladiators 142-4 in a Challenge Cup tie at the McAlpine Stadium - centre Greg Austin scoring 9 tries on his way to 52 tries that season, a World Record for a centre
World War One intervened and the club's glory period was forced to come to a premature end.
The club continued to collect trophies until the mid sixties, but would never return to the heights of that magical period.
By the seventies, the club had become a shadow of its former self, the old Fartown ground had fallen into disrepair and the club frequently finished in the lower reaches of the league. An abysmal 1984 attempt to revive the club by adopting the nickname of Huddersfield Barracudas was shortlived.
The revival of the club began when Alex Murphy took over as coach in 1991. Within a year, promotion to the Second Division had been achieved, and there was pride once again in the famous Claret and Gold shirt.
In 1992, the club moved to Huddersfield Town A.F.C.'s home ground at Leeds Road, before taking a share in the Galpharm Stadium in 1994.
Since then the club has returned to the top division of British rugby league. In 1998, the club was promoted to Super League, but struggled with the higher standards and were relegated in 2001.
In 2002 the club went unbeaten for the entire league season and returned to the Superleague. In 2003 the club consolidated their position and in 2004 improved again, making their first appearance in the Challenge Cup semi-finals since 1971.
The beginning of the 2005 Super League season saw the club make it's highest profile signing in fifty years as Australian centre Mick De Vere became the clubs first Australian international player since Pat Devery in the 1950s.
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Honours
- Championship: 1911-12, 1912-13, 1914-15, 1928-29, 1929-30, 1948-49, 1961-62 (7 times)
- Challenge Cup : 1912-13, 1914-15, 1919-20, 1932-33, 1944-45, 1952-53 (6 times)
- Division Two Championship (including Northern Ford Premiership): 1974-75, 2002 (2 times)
- Division Three Championship: 1991-92
- Divisional Premiership: 1998
- Yorkshire Cup (Rugby Union): 1889-90
- Yorkshire Cup (Rugby League): 1909-10, 1911-12, 1913-14, 1914-15, 1918-19, 1919-20, 1926-27, 1931-32, 1938-39, 1950-51, 1952-53, 1957-58 (12 times)
- Yorkshire League: 1911-12, 1912-13, 1913-4, 1914-15, 1919-20, 1921-22, 1928-29, 1929-30, 1948-49, 1949-50, 1951-52 (11 times)
- National League Cup: 2002
Records
Player records
- Most tries in a match: 10 by Lionel Cooper vs Keighley, 17th November 1951
- Most goals in a match: 19 by Major Holland vs Swinton Park, 28th February 1914
- Most points in a match: 39 by Major Holland vs Swinton Park, 28th February 1914
- Most tries in a season: 80 by Albert Rosenfeld, 1913-14
- Most goals in a season: 147 by Ben Gronow, 1919-20
- Most points in a season: 332 by Pat Devery, 1952-53
Team records
- Highest Score: 142-4 vs Blackpool Gladiators, 26th November 1994
- Highest Attendance (Neutral game): 35,136 Leeds vs Wakefield, RL Challenge Cup Semi-Final, at Fartown, 19th April 1947
External links
- Huddersfield Giants Website (http://www.giantsrl.com/)
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