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Bradford City Association Football Club—also known informally as Bradford City—are an English football club founded in Bradford in 1903 to introduce the sport to the West Riding of Yorkshire, which until then had been almost entirely inclined towards rugby league. Before they had even played their first game, City were elected to The Football League to replace Doncaster Rovers in Division Two, and took over the Valley Parade stadium, which has been their permanent home ground ever since. The club won the Division Two title in 1908 and the FA Cup in 1911, both under the management of Peter O'Rourke, before they were relegated from Division One in 1921–22. City were relegated again five seasons later, but when O'Rourke was reappointed as manager before the 1928–29 season, they broke several club records to earn promotion back to Division Two. After eight seasons in Division Two, City returned to Division Three, and they remained in the third and fourth tiers of the English football league system until 1985–86. During that time, they endured several periods of financial hardship, and in 1985, their ground suffered a disastrous fire in which 56 people died, on a day the club and their fans were supposed to be celebrating promotion. In 1987–88, the club came close to returning to the top division when they missed out on promotion on the final day of the season. Following relegation back to Division Three, after Geoffrey Richmond became chairman in January 1994 the club's fortunes were lifted. He helped to take them to their first appearance at Wembley and subsequently into the Premier League, where they played for two seasons. Following Richmond's self-proclaimed "six weeks of madness" and the collapse of television channel ITV Digital, the club suffered its first spell in administration. Another period under administration followed, and City dropped through the leagues of professional English football back to the bottom tier of The Football League, until promotion in 2012–13 brought them back up a division. In January 2013, City became the first club from the fourth tier of English football since 1962 to reach the Football League Cup final, and the first fourth-tier club ever to reach a major Wembley Cup Final. ==Early successes (1903–19)== League football was established in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1894 when the West Yorkshire League was formed. A year later the Bradford Schools Football and Athletic Association abandoned its rugby roots to adopt the association football code. Several clubs across Bradford, including Bradford (Park Avenue), also adopted the code during the latter years of the 19th century. By 1901, a team called Bradford City had played in the leagues within the city, playing for two seasons, but disbanded at the end of the 1902–03 season. On 30 January 1903, Scotsman James Whyte, a sub-editor of the ''Bradford Observer'', met with Football Association representative John Brunt at Valley Parade, the home of Manningham Football Club, to discuss establishing a Football League club within the city.〔 Manningham FC were a rugby league club formed in 1880 and became a founding member of the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. A series of meetings was held, and on 29 May 1903, at the 23rd annual meeting of Manningham FC, the committee decided to leave the rugby code and switch to association football.〔 The Football League, which saw the invitation as a chance to introduce football to the rugby league-dominated area of the West Riding, elected the club, which had been renamed Bradford City, to the league with a total of 30 votes to replace Doncaster Rovers. Bradford City became the first league football team from the county, before they even had a team or played a game.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=In the beginning )〕 They and Chelsea, who were elected to the league two years later, share the distinction of being the only clubs to join the league without having played a competitive fixture.〔 A summer archery contest, which had been organised to raise money for the rugby league club, was used to finance the new club,〔 and Manningham's colours of claret and amber were adopted as Bradford City's kit, but with Manningham's hoops changed to stripes.〔 Robert Campbell was appointed by a 13-man sub-committee to be the club's first secretary-manager from a shortlist of 30 applicants. Secretarial duties were carried out by committee member Whyte, with Campbell's role more on the playing side. The committee assembled a squad at the cost of £917 10s 0d. Their first game was a 2–0 defeat away at Grimsby Town on 1 September 1903, and first home game was six days later against Gainsborough Trinity, played in front of a crowd of 11,000 including the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Bradford. It was not until the third game against Burton United that the club recorded their first victory, on the way to a 10th-place finish in Division Two.〔 The club faced having to apply for re-election in their second season, until five wins in the final six games lifted the club to eighth position.〔 In November 1905, Peter O'Rourke, one of the club's centre-halves, was appointed manager, with his last game as a player coming the following month.〔 He guided City to finishes of 11th and fifth and then earned promotion to Division One in 1907–08. The season had started with an 8–1 victory over Chesterfield and included another six victories when City scored five goals or more, before promotion and then the title were assured with successive victories over Derby County and Burnley in April. Ahead of their first campaign in Division One, Bradford City embarked upon their first continental tour; despite victories over German side Aachen and Belgian club Verviers, the club's first league victory in the top division did not come until the fifth attempt with a 4–1 defeat of Bury. It was their only win in the first 14 games. Results improved in the second half of the season but it was not until a 1–0 win on the final game of the season against Manchester United with a goal from Frank O'Rourke that City prevented an immediate relegation back to Division Two.〔 The following season included a ten-game undefeated spell as Bradford finished seventh, but this was bettered in the 1910–11 season, which is Bradford City's most successful campaign. Their league finish of fifth remains the club's highest position, and an FA Cup triumph, with a 1–0 win over Newcastle United in the 1911 final is the club's only major honour. The first- and third-round victories were secured with solitary goals from Dicky Bond, but he missed the final four games of the run because of club suspension, the first of which was a 1–0 defeat of Burnley in the fourth round in front of 39,146 fans, a crowd which remains Valley Parade's highest attendance.〔 The biggest win of the run came in the semi-finals with a 3–0 victory over Blackburn Rovers. City's supporters were taken to the final in London on 11 special trains, but the game with Newcastle at Crystal Palace ended in a goalless draw and was even described as a "decidedly dull and uneventful game". The draw meant a replay was necessary. It took place four days later on 26 April 1911 at Old Trafford, Manchester, when a single goal from Jimmy Speirs in the 15th minute gave Bradford a 1–0 victory. They were the first winners of a new trophy, appropriately made by Bradford jewellers Fattorini's. Bradford's defence of the FA Cup was ended in the fourth round by Barnsley, who went on to succeed Bradford as the holders. The 3–2 defeat, played at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, following two draws, brought an end to 11 consecutive clean sheets in the FA Cup—a competition record.〔 〕 The sequence also included a 12th clean sheet in the second replay against Barnsley which was abandoned because of crowd trouble. The cup run had included the first Bradford derby between City and cross-city rivals Bradford (Park Avenue). In the league, City finished 11th, the first of four consecutive mid-table finishes before league football was suspended because of the First World War. City's FA Cup hero Speirs, who had joined Leeds City, was one of many footballers to lose his life during the war. Bradford City players who died included Bob Torrance, another FA Cup winner, and Evelyn Lintott, as well as several reserve team players. Frank Buckley and Jock Ewart were seriously wounded, and Dicky Bond was taken prisoner-of-war. In 1921, Bond laid a commemorative wreath on the Cenotaph in memory of his fallen colleagues prior to a league game at Arsenal.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Bradford City A.F.C.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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