Bradford City Association Football Club—also known informally as
Bradford City, or just "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 achieved early success by winning 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 suffered a second relegation 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 success on the field.
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...
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