History

Rugby football was first played in Huddersfield in 1869.

Matches were initially played at the Rifle Field in Trinity Street and then, with the amalgamation of the St John's Cricket Club, at Fartown from 1879.

Huddersfield were in the top ranks of English clubs when, in August 1895, the town hosted the historic meeting at the George Hotel at which 20 clubs resigned from the Rugby Union to create professional rugby league.

Rugby as a sport virtually vanished until a new club was re-formed and named Huddersfield Old Boys.

Their first ground was at the United Cricket Club in Luck Lane with changing facilities at the Croppers Arms.

World War 1 blew the whistle on the sport and games were not restarted until 1919 on a ground at Salendine Nook initially before the club took a lease on land at Waterloo. It was here that the club established their current colours of white, claret and gold.

A stand was built and changing rooms completed for exclusive rugby use -- a luxury in those days. But the ground was plagues with drainage problems and another move was contemplated. In the event it was decided to buy the ground outright -- for £700 -- and invest in drainage.

In 1935 £370 was invested in a new pavilion and bar -- and ladies were welcomed to a hitherto male bastion and they themselves began the tradition of aftermatch tea making.

In 1946 there was a significant name change. It was thought by a number of members that the title Old Boys had become an anachronism because it inferred that the club was limited to old boys of some particular schools and thus deterred newcomers to the town.

So we became Huddersfield Rugby Union Football Club.

By 1964 the original pavilion was falling to bits and a new one, costing £11,000, was officially opened by Huddersfield's then MP J P W Mallalieu, himself a former Oxford Blue.

Meanwhile, over the years, the club acquired more land -- including a former sewage works -- to cater for junior teams. These purchases placed HRUFC in the enviable position of being a significant freehold landowner, indeed one of the few major sports organisations in Huddersfield to own, rather than lease, its own property.

Indeed the club sold part of its Waterloo property for £1.4 million to help fund the purchase of the 26-acre Lockwood Park from Bass in 1996 and create a £4 million major sports complex backed by a £1.84 Sports Council lottery grant.

[written with due credit to the late K T Shaw, President 1955-56]