Official Website of Bradford Park Avenue

About Us

Joining the Northern Union following the "Great Split" of 1893, the Park Avenue club enjoyed great success as a Rugby League club, defeating Salford in 1906 to win the Northern Union Cup. In spite of this success at the "handling game" there was also a demand for Association Football, and Park Avenue played host to both sports. It is because of this common heritage that Bradford R.U.F.C. (since merged to become Bradford & Bingley R.U.F.C.), Bradford Northern R.L.F.C. (now the Bradford Bulls), and Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C. share the traditional colours of red, amber & black, still used by the Avenue club as their second strip. The current club colours of green & white were adopted first of all in 1911, continued throughout the club's stay in the First Division of the Football League from 1914 until 1921, and were again used in the late 50's and early 60's, including Avenue's last promotion season in the Football League in 1960/61.

 

The first game of Association Football played at Park Avenue is believed to have been between Blackburn Rovers and Blackburn Olympic and in 1895 a Bradford side beat a team from Moss Side, Manchester 4 -1 in front of 3,000 spectators. With soccer successful already at Manningham (Bradford City) a meeting was called of the club members on April 15th 1907 to decide the course for the future. A vote appeared to favour continuing in the Northern Union then opinion shifted towards the amateur rugby game but the Chairman, Mr Briggs, used his influence to swing the committee behind his favoured Association game.

 

On 31 May 1907 the club applied for membership of the Football League but were unsuccessful. Undaunted they then applied for the vacancy created in the Southern League by Fulham's elevation into the League and having been accepted, set about creating a worthy ground. A suggested merger with City came to nothing but the renowned Glasgow architect Archibald Leitch who had been responsible for Hampden Park and other major grounds was employed. His finished work would be capable of holding 37,000.

 

The club also entered a team in the North Eastern League and the first game played at the new Park Avenue was on 2 September 1907 when the first team beat Newcastle United Reserves with around 6,000 watching. The first Southern League fixture was at Elm Park, Reading and saw a 3-1 winning start. Another win at Watford followed and on 14 September 15,000 turned up to watch them complete a quick double over Watford with a 3-2 win. Results then tapered off.

 

In February Tottenham announced they were quitting the league at the end of the season and Queens Park Rangers and Bradford followed. The result was a bitter battle between the clubs and the league. The AGMs of the Football League and the Southern League were the same day, 27th May. Bradford resigned from the Southern League and the other two clubs were expelled. Fortunately the Football League accepted Bradford into the Second Division while QPR withdrew at the last minute and were accepted back into the Southern set-up but made to play most of their games midweek. Spurs were rejected by the Football League and remained in limbo until mid June when Stoke had second thoughts about Division Two and resigned.

 

Spurs then tied with Lincoln City on a ballot before gaining their place by 5 management committee votes to 3.

 

The Park Avenue club was then reformed into a limited company and played its first Football League game at home to Hull City, winning 1-0. In 1909 the ground staged an international match between England and Ireland and it was an Irishman, Sam Burnison signed from Distillery in May 1910, who became the club's first player to win an international cap whilst with the club.

 

1912-13 saw the club reach the Quarter-Final of the FA Cup and the following season they finished runners-up to Notts County to beat Arsenal on Goal Average for the second promotion place. Their first game among the nation's elite couldn't have been much harder with the return of champions Blackburn Rovers to Park Avenue and 25,000 saw them go down 1-2. Just under 30,000 saw the meeting of the two Bradford sides at Valley Parade and over 21,000 the return fixture which completed the season which saw them finish in a best ever position of 9th.

 

After the war Avenue reached the FA Cup Quarter-Final again in 1919 - 20 but were relegated at the end of the next season. Worse was to follow with immediate relegation to the 3rd Division (North). They attempted to bounce straight back but were beaten into second place by Nelson. 1924-25 saw them finish as highest scorers with 84 goals including seven at Ashington. The following season they scored a club record eight against Walsall and ended as runners-up, and scored a total of 101 goals in consecutive seasons in 1925-26, 1926-27 and 1927-28. In the meantime, only six league matches were lost at Park Avenue in seven seasons from 1922-3 to 1928-9, a record unequalled in modern times.

 

1928 saw them promoted again as champions and it was in the 2nd Division that Albert Geldard became the youngest player at 15 years and 158 days to play in the Football League when he turned out for the club at Millwall on 16 September 1929. He left the club on 14 November 1932 to join Everton for a then club record fee of £4,000. One player the club was determined to try to keep was Jack Crayston the first professional player from Grange-over-Sands who started his career with Ulverston Town. He finally went in 1934 to Arsenal and in little over a year earned his first England cap. After injury cut short his playing career he returned to Highbury as manager.

 

Bringing us right up to date, the club now playing from The Horsfall Stadium has encountered a new leader in Mr Robert Stewart Blackburn. Mr Blackburn took over the helm nearly 12 months ago and his vision of taking the club back to its glory days is clear for all to see. The board of directors are wholly behind the changes and the objective of regaining football league status is very much underway. The first stage of transforming Horsfall Stadium has been completed:, new seating, new corporate hospitality, new refreshment and new terracing has all meant an increased gate week on week. Indeed the attendances are now reaching new highs when set against figures in the last 7 to 10 years.

 

There is no doubt about it, Mr Blackburn and his board have a clear plan and whilst the results continue to improve on the pitch the backroom staff are really beginning to show Corporate class in driving Bradford Park Avenue back to being the N.o1 club in the City.