Huddersfield Rugby Union
History
Rugby was first played in this then predominantly textile town in 1866 and the club formed in 1870 when there were twenty players a side. It was here in 1895 that twenty northern clubs broke away from the RFU to establish what is now known as Rugby League.
Disavowing professionalism, amateurs continued playing at neighbouring clubs until 1909 when Edgar Brierley, Walter Scott and Norman Taylor re-established the union club as Huddersfield Old Boys - nomadically playing in five grounds until buying farmland at Waterloo in 1919 and, in 1946, re-titling the club as Huddersfield RUFC.
In 1948 we provided England's captain, Norman Hall, and in 1955 the President of the RFU, Lewis Clifford. Our own former President Mick Brown is currently chairman of the Yorkshire Rugby Union.
In 1996 we sold the Waterloo junior grounds - where we pioneered mini-rugby in England in 1969 - to buy a twenty six acre former brewery estate at Lockwood Park which, with the assistance of a matching £2 million grant from the Sports Council, we have transformed into a major sports complex, conference centre and business park.
