Hull City A.F.C.
Adam Pearson | manager =
Phil Parkinson | league =
The Championship | season =
2005-06 | position =
Championship, 18th | pattern_la1=_shouldersonblack|pattern_b1=_blackstripes|pattern_ra1=_shouldersonblack| leftarm1=FF8000|body1=FF8000|rightarm1=FF8000|shorts1=000000|socks1=000000| pattern_la2=_blackshoulders|pattern_b2=_thinwhitesides|pattern_ra2=_blackshoulders| leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=000000|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=000000|
Hull City Association Football Club are an
English football team based at the
KC Stadium (
Kingston Communications Stadium) in
Kingston upon Hull,
East Riding of Yorkshire. They play in black and amber stripes, hence their nickname: "The
Tigers".
Hull City A.F.C. were founded in 1904. Their highest ever finish in the league came in 1910, when they came very close to winning promotion to the top flight, finishing third in the old
Second Division. Level on points with second placed
Oldham, they missed promotion on goal average by the slim margin of 0.29 of a goal.
In cup competitions, the club's greatest achievement was in 1930, when they reached the
FA Cup semi-final.
City's darkest era came in the late 1990s, when the club became increasingly troubled by rising debts which almost put them out of business. They also came close to being relegated from the Football League. But a boardroom takeover in 2001 has seen their fortunes revived; having achieved promotion two seasons in a row, Hull City have now returned to the second tier of English football, the
Football League Championship.
1986 - 1991: Life in the Second Division
Hull reached the Second Division in 1986 after finishing Third Division runners-up under player-manager
Brian Horton. They defied the odds to stay there for the next five years before finally going down in 1991, by which time the club's manager was
Terry Dolan.
1991 - 1996: Third tier team
Hull finished 14th in the Third Division in
1991-92, meaning that they would be competing in the new Football League Division Two. In their first season in the rebranded division, Hull narrowly avoided another relegation but the board kept faith in Dolan and over the next two seasons they achieved secure mid table finishes. But terrible form in
1995-96 condemned Hull to relegation to Division Three.
1997 - 2001: Striving to survive
Dolan was fired and replaced by
Mark Hateley after Hull failed to get anywhere near the top of Division Three in
1996-97. By this stage, financial problems were taking their toll on the Tigers and it was starting to look as though the club would go out of business before long. And Hull's league form was steadily deteriorating to the point that relegation to the Conference was looking a real possibility - which surely would have meant the death of the club. Hateley departed in 1999 to be replaced by 34-year-old veteran player
Warren Joyce, who steered the club to safety after being anchored to the foot of the table - Hull City fans refer to this season as "The Great Escape". After this feat, Joyce was perhaps unlucky to be replaced in April 2000 by the experienced
Brian Little.
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
2000-01, and lost in the semi finals. But things could have been much worse - at least the Hull City fans still had a football club to support. A boardroom takeover had eased the club's precarious financial situation and all fears of closure were banished - had the club been relegated to the Conference the previous season, it is extremely unlikely that this takeover would have taken place.
2002 - 2006: Rising from the ashes
New Chairman
Adam Pearson ploughed funds into the club, allowing Little to rebuild the team with the aim of immediate promotion. Hull occupied the Division Three promotion and playoff places for much of the
2001-02 season, but Little suddenly departed two months before the end of the season and Hull slipped to 11th under his successor
Jan Mølby.
Hull began the
2002-03 season as most people's favourites for promotion from Division Three, but a terrible start to the season saw relegation look more likely than promotion and Molby was sacked in October as the Tigers languished fifth from bottom in the league.
Peter Taylor was named as Hull's new manager and in December 2002, just weeks after his appointment, Hull relocated to the impressive new 25,400-seat
Kingston Communications Stadium after 56 years at
Boothferry Park. After this move, Hull's attendances were some of the best in the division but their results were rarely this impressive and they were unable to finish above 13th place in the final table.
Hull's new stadium was - and still is - one of the most impressive stadiums outside the Premiership and it has helped influence an upturn in Hull's fortunes after a decade of misery. The two seasons which followed the opening of the new stadium were hugely successful. Hull were Division Three runners-up in
2003-04and League One runners-up in
2004-05 - back-to-back promotions - which took them into the Championship.
2005-06 was hardly the most exciting season in the history of Hull City football club; it was more a season of consolidation after two successive promotions. Hull finished 18th in the final table - a comfortable 10 points clear of relegation and their highest league finish for 16 years.
2006 - present: The Premiership Dream
The successful stint at Hull City saw Peter Taylor's name linked with the manager's job before it was given to
Iain Dowie. On
13 June 2006, Peter Taylor left Hull to take up the job vacated by Dowie at , a club at which he had enjoyed considerable success as a player, with
Phil Parkinson being confirmed as his replacement on
29 June 2006. Hull agreed to pay Colchester (with whom Parkinson was still under contract) £400,000 compensation.
Defender
Leon Cort became Hull's first ever million-pound player when he followed Peter Taylor to Crystal Palace for a fee of £1,250,000. Parkinson wasted no time in spending the majority of this money on strengthening the City squad in readiness for the
2006-07 season.
Chairman Adam Pearson has stated his ambition to take Hull into the top flight for the first time in their history - and he believes Phil Parkinson is the manager to do it.
Coaching staff
* Manager:
Phil Parkinson* Assistant Manager:
Frank Barlow* Development Director:
Colin Murphy*Goalkeeping Coach:
Mark Prudhoe*Youth Team Coach:
Billy Russell*Fitness Coordinator:
Stuart Ayles*Physio:
Simon MaltbyCurrent squad
Out on loan
*
James Ramster (1904-1905)
*
Ambrose Langley (1905-1913)
*
Harry Chapman (1913-1914)
*
Fred Stringer (1914-1916)
*
David Menzies (1916-1921)
*
Percy Lewis (1921-1923)
*
Bill McCracken (1923-1931)
*
Haydn Green (1931-1934)
*
John Hill (1934-1936)
*
David Menzies (1936)
*
Ernest Blackburn (1936-1946)
*
Frank Buckley (1946-1948)
*
Raich Carter (1948-1951)
*
Bob Jackson (1952-1955)
*
Bob Brocklebank (1955-1961)
*
Cliff Britton (1961-1969)
*
Terry Neill (1970-1974)
*
John Kaye (1974-1977)
*
Bobby Collins (1977-1978)
*
Ken Houghton (1978-1979)
*
Mike Smith (1979-1982)
*
Bobby Brown (1982)
*
Colin Appleton (1982-1984)
*
Brian Horton (1984-1988)
*
Eddie Gray (1988-1989)
*
Colin Appleton (1989)
*
Stan Ternent (1989-1991)
*
Terry Dolan (1991-1997)
*
Mark Hateley (1997-1998)
*
Warren Joyce (1998-2000)
*
Billy Russell (2000)
*
Brian Little (2000-2002)
*
Billy Russell (2002)
*
Jan Mølby (2002)
*
Billy Russell (2002)
*
Peter Taylor (2002-2006)
*
Phil Parkinson (2006-)
*Division Three Champions 1965/66
*Division Three (North) Champions 1932/33. 1948/49
* Current
England manager
Steve McClaren played for Hull City from 1979â€"1985.
* Hull is the largest city in
Europe never to have had a club play in the top division of its national league.
* Hull City is the answer to the old pub quiz question 'What is the only football club in the country spelled entirely of letters you can not colour in?'.
* Hull City's mascot is Roary the tiger.
*
Amber Nectar, fanzine
*
Official club site*
Amber Nectar (Unofficial)*
Hull City Online (Unofficial)*
CityIndependent (Unofficial)*
City Till I Die (Unofficial)*
Vital Football Hull City (Unnofficial) 
