Hull City FC (The Tigers) History
Hull City Association Football Club was founded in June 1904.
On 1 September 1904 , Hull's debut match took place against Notts County ; with 6000 in attendance at The Boulevard , Hull notched up an impressive start, holding the more experienced County to a 2-2 draw.
Hull's first competitive football game was in the FA Cup, but they were eliminated, after a replay, in the preliminary round against Stockton , the score was 7-4 on aggregate.
Hull City were finally entered into the Football League Second Division for the 1905-06 season.
Still under the managership of Ambrose Langley, Hull continued to finish consistently in the top half of the table. They came agonisingly close to promotion in the 1909-10 season, recording what would be their highest ever finish in their history. Hull finished third.
In 1930 was the club's greatest achievement in cup competitions, when they reached the FA Cup semi-final. The cup run saw Hull knocking out Leeds United and eventual Champions of the Second and Third Division; Blackpool and Plymouth Argyle respectively.
In the 1948-49 season, managed by former England international Raich Carter , Hull won the Third Division (North), and their newly built Boothferry Park ground saw a crowd approaching 50,000 for the Christmas Day game against Rotherham United , and exceeded by that for the FA Cup 6th round tie with Manchester United; the attendance of 55,019 still remains a record today.
Hull City had promotion seasons from the Third to the Second Division again in 1959 and 1966, winning the Third Division in the latter season. Hull became the first team in the world to go out of a cup competition on penalties, which came against Manchester United in the semi-final of the Watney Mann Invitation Cup on 1 August 1970.
The early 1980s, Hull City were down in the Fourth Division, and financial collapse lead to receivership.
Hull reached the Second Division in 1985 under new player-manager Brian Horton.
Hull finished 14th in the Third Division in the 1991-92 season, meaning that they would be competing in the new Football League Division Two the following season.
In 1997 the club was purchased by former tennis player David Lloyd , who sacked Dolan as manager and replaced him with Mark Hateley after Hull could only finish in 17th place in the table.
Lloyd sold the club in November 1998 to a South Yorkshire based consortium, but retained ownership of Boothferry Park.
Hateley departed in November 1998, with the club anchored to the foot of the table.
Little breathed new life into Hull and managed to get good results out of the players, despite briefly being locked out of Boothferry Park by the bailiffs and with liquidation looking a real possibility. Hull qualified for the Division Three playoffs in the 2000-01 season, losing in the semi-finals.
The new chairman ploughed funds into the club, allowing Little to rebuild the team. Hull occupied the Division Three promotion and playoff places for much of the 2001-02 season, but Little was sacked two months before the end of the season and Hull slipped to 11th under his successor Jan Mølby .
Hull began the 2002-03 season with a terrible start, which saw relegation look more likely than promotion, and Mølby was sacked in October as Hull languished fifth from bottom in the league.
Hull were Division Three runners-up in 2003-04 and League One runners-up in 2004-05.
Taylor left the club on 13 June 2006 to take up the manager's job at Crystal Palace.
Phil Parkinson was confirmed as his replacement on 29 June 2006, but was sacked on 4 December 2006 with Hull in the relegation zone, despite having spent over £2 million on players.
Chairman Pearson sold the club to a consortium led by Paul Duffen in June 2007.
Under Paul Duffen and manager Phil Brown Hull City improved greatly on their relegation battle of 2006-07 and qualified for the play-offs after finishing the season in third.