Chapter 18:Metamorphosis of Manningham (1902-3)

The Origins of Bradford City

By David Pendleton

Chapter 18: The Metamorphosis of Manningham

1902-03: The Final Season

The formation of the Northern Rugby League had plunged the remaining rump of the game into crisis. Manningham were not alone, across Yorkshire and Lancashire several clubs faced extinction. The desire of the élite teams to maximise their income had undoubtedly been placed before the greater good of the game.

The Northern Rugby League responded by forming a Second Division. Though it was a welcome initiative, the geographical spread of the clubs brought with it unattractive fixtures and increased travelling costs. It did little to address the root cause, the loss of money spinning fixtures against the top clubs. Promotion was essential if there was to be any long-term financial stability. It was inevitable that clubs would gamble everything in order to gain a place among the elite – the modern day parallels are blindingly obvious.

Manningham signed six new players in an attempt to gain promotion to the lucrative top division. Early form was hardly inspiring, only six points were scored in the opening three games and the first try didn’t come until the fourth match of the campaign at Normanton.

Although Manningham had a close relationship with the local football pioneers, on 15 September 1902 the Bradford Daily Telegraph mused, “there is little hope for a professional association team in Bradford, at least not for a considerable time. With regards to local association football the failing is that there is quantity but no quality”.

Victory over Stockport on 11 October saw Manningham hit a rich vein of form. However, the fifth straight victory over York only attracted 3,000 to Valley Parade. A 15-0 defeat at Keighley ended the fine run and dropped Manningham into fifth place in the table. By the turn of the year Manningham were in fourth place, this despite a series of desperately low scoring games. Indeed, December’s four games saw Manningham score a mere ten points.

The visit of Leeds on New Year's Day 1903 attracted a healthy 6,000 spectators. An athletics festival was held after the match with a harriers race commencing immediately after the final whistle. Then the crowd poured onto the field for the highlight of the day – an archery competition. A huge sixteen foot slowly rotating target, full of thousands numbered tickets which had been sold all over the country in the preceding weeks, was set up in front of the main stand. Members of the Manningham committee and selected prominent gentlemen from Bradford shot 150 arrows at the target. A Mr W Wisdon of Woolwich in London won the first prize of £85. Mrs Smith of 67 Preston Street, Bradford carried away second prize of an upright piano. Third prize, a dining room suite, went to R Dent of Station Road, Oxenhope. The competition was a huge financial success, which would prove to be the club's saving grace come the end of the season.

The opening days of 1903 brought a concerted attempt to form a professional football club in the city. A circular written by pioneers James Whyte and John Brunt claimed at a moderate estimate 20,000 watched local association games on any given Saturday. With that figure in mind, they suggested that a professional team would attract seven or eight thousand fans. On 14 January the Bradford Daily Telegraph made a thinly veiled appeal to local pride asking ‘will it be Bradford or Leeds?’ who would pioneer football in the West Riding. The paper noted that while the Bradford RFC committee were ‘uncompromising’ in their opposition to football, their counterparts at Valley Parade were ‘not so unanimous in their objections’. The article went on to say that two rugby clubs could not prosper in the city and that projections based on existing football clubs, and the relative populations of those towns compared to Bradford, suggested that a football club would almost certainly be a success.

For the time being Manningham’s commitment to rugby seemed as strong as ever when they signed three new players prior to the home game against Normanton on 24 January. However, they were obviously keeping their options open, as only six days later James Whyte, sub-editor of the Bradford Observer, along with Bradford & District Football Association’s John Brunt were invited to a meeting at Valley Parade by Alfred Ayrton. There, for the first time, the possibility of a professional football club was discussed.

In the Rugby League Cup local side Idle held Manningham to a scoreless draw at Valley Parade. Over 3,000 fans saw the replay at Idle’s Westfield Lane ground, this time there was no repeat of the heroics as Manningham won 12-0. In round two Manningham went out at Keighley, a result that effectively finished their season as the side were marooned in midtable.

On 26 March a special meeting of Manningham members was held at St Paul’s Schoolroom. Initially there was some hostility towards the committee. The fact that the ordinary six shilling members had not been invited was the source of much discontent. S Naylor claimed that the committee had already ‘practically pledged itself to run a professional association team next year’. Club president Alfred Ayrton said ‘over the last three years nearly £1,000 had been lost’ and ‘the club had been crippled by debt’.

The previous Saturday £115 had been taken at the gate for the derby against Keighley. A sum which was ten times greater than at least half a dozen other games that season. With Leeds and Keighley poised for promotion to the First Division those lucrative pay days would be lost. The treasurer Harry Jowett thought that ‘the committee deserved thanks for getting the club out of debt’, but he couldn’t see how that situation could go on for much longer. Only the archery competition on New Years Day had saved the club for massive losses. The football pioneers were offering to provide £2,000 cash (albeit repayable at 5% interest) if Manningham would offer the ground and £500 capital. Two former players gave opposing views of the future. Bill Fawcett considered football ‘the coming game’, but Eddie Holmes thought that the club should disband and ‘wind up its affairs honourably’. After two hours debate the meeting gave overwhelming support to ‘form a first class football team to be run in conjunction with the present rugby team’. In reply to a question from the floor Ayrton said the new club was to be called ‘Bradford City FC’.

The following night a large meeting of football supporters at the Market Tavern appointed a sub-committee to meet their Manningham counterparts. In light of the Manningham members support of the football proposal, a further committee was formed to begin to look into the engagement of players.

Eighteen Football League clubs indicated their support for the emerging Bradford bid for League status. Indeed Sheffield United sent a team to meet a West Yorkshire XI at Valley Parade on 6 April. 4,000 fans saw the Blades win a high scoring encounter 8-5.

Manningham ended the season in indifferent form, what turned out to be the clubs final game came on 25 April when South Shields were defeated 23-3 at Valley Parade. Three days later Middlesbrough signalled their support for football in Bradford when they drew 1-1 with a West Yorkshire XI at Valley Parade in front of 2,000 fans.

A delegation travelled to London on 25 May to apply for admission to the Football League. The infant club was accepted with open arms and the delegation returned to Bradford in triumph. In an upstairs room at the Belle Vue they celebrated what was described as ‘the greatest football scoop ever known’. Alfred Ayrton chaired the celebration meeting of some 160 Manningham members. Bradford City were the only side to have joined the League without having played a single match!

The Manningham committee had by now shifted their position and were proposing abandoning rugby ‘for twelve months’ and using the free Saturday to run a second team. One obstacle remained – the members of Manningham rugby club. As a democratic organisation they had the power to kill the football club at birth.

At St Paul’s Schoolroom on 29 May 1903, president Alfred Ayrton chaired a stormy annual meeting. Manningham had lost £609 on the season. From an income of £862 a crippling £608 had been paid in players wages. The gate receipts were £669, subscriptions £126 and donations £53. Only the athletics festival had saved the club. It has grossed an amazing £1,772, which had cleared the clubs debts and had left a balance at hand of £472.

Aryton had concluded that the club could not survive as a second division rugby club. He urged the members to support ‘a game that would pay’. Although a call for rugby to be retained was ‘met with great cheers’, after two hours of heated debate, it was agreed by 75 to 34 votes that rugby would be abandoned.

Bradford City was born.

Chapter One: Genesis (1872-80)

Chapter Two: Carlisle Road (1880-86)

Chapter Three: Valley Parade's first season (1886-87)

Chapter Four: Death On The Midland Road (1887-9)

Chapter Five: For Club and Country (1889-90)

Chapter Six: Trouble At The Mill (1890-91)

Chapter Seven: Football Begins to Cast Its Shadow (1891-92)

Chapter Eight: Semi-Finalists and League Pioneers (1892-93)

Chapter Nine: Champions! (1893-94)

Chapter Ten: The Last Season of Rugby Union (1894-95)

Chapter Eleven: Champions of the Rugby League (1895-96)