40 Fun Facts About Hull FC

Which Gene Autry song did Hull FC fans adopt after singing it to goal-kicker Joe Oliver?

Old Faithful suited Oliver, a full-back so dependable with the boot in the early 1930s that the crowd burst into the song at a match, and it has been the club's battle cry ever since.

Before the 1980 all-Hull Wembley final, what did a famous homemade sign on the road out of Hull ask?

Turn the lights off was the request to the last one out of the city, on a cardboard sign three fans propped against a lamppost the night before Hull Kingston Rovers won 10–5.

Which Hull FC winger, the club's record try scorer, was Great Britain's first black captain?

Clive Sullivan led Great Britain to the 1972 World Cup, scoring a length-of-the-field try in the final, and the main road into the city is now named Clive Sullivan Way.

Which feat did Hull FC's 1978–79 Division Two side achieve on the way to promotion?

Hull FC won every league match, 26 out of 26, to go straight back up under new coach Arthur Bunting, and within four years they were champions of the top flight.

Which nickname did Hull FC take from the street where the main entrance to The Boulevard stood?

The Airlie Birds comes from Airlie Street, and the name outlived the ground: the club left The Boulevard after 107 years, and the demolition crews moved in during 2010.

Which posthumous medal went to Jack Harrison, scorer of a Hull FC record 52 tries in one season?

The Victoria Cross honoured Harrison's lone dash at an enemy machine gun at Oppy Wood in 1917, made to save the men of his pinned-down company; his body was never found.

Hull FC represent which side of the River Hull, with Hull Kingston Rovers on the other bank?

West of the river has been Hull FC territory since the 1890s, when the club took over The Boulevard and Hull Kingston Rovers, the ground's first tenants, moved across the city.

Hull FC won the 2005 Challenge Cup final 25–24 in which city, used while Wembley was rebuilt?

Cardiff's Millennium Stadium held 74,213 for a final that Hull, the underdogs, stole with a converted try three minutes from time, their first Challenge Cup win for 23 years.

Which club did Hull FC beat 12–10 in 2016 to win a Challenge Cup final at Wembley for the first time?

Warrington Wolves were the victims as Hull finally won at the national stadium, having failed to win any of their eight previous finals there in a run stretching back to 1959.

During rugby league's 1990s rebranding craze, Hull FC were briefly renamed after which animal?

Sharks was the name the club carried in the late 1990s after being left out of the first Super League season; it won promotion in 1997, and plain Hull FC returned for the 2000 campaign.

Which part of The Boulevard, home of Hull FC's loudest singing, was named after its entry price?

The Threepenny Stand cost three old pence to enter when the ground opened; after the 1985 Bradford City fire the wooden structure was shut, then reopened with fans kept to its bottom four steps.

The Boulevard stood close to Hessle Road, linking Hull FC with which of the city's former industries?

Fishing was the trade of the streets around the ground, and the bond with its people ran deep: a memorial on the site honours fans whose ashes were scattered at the stadium.

Hull FC's 1980s stars Gary Kemble, James Leuluai and Dane O'Hara all came from which country?

New Zealand supplied all three in 1981, and its national side were also the last visitors Hull FC faced at The Boulevard, winning 28–11 there in October 2002.

Besides rugby league and speedway, which sport did The Boulevard stage, outlasting Hull FC's stay?

Greyhound racing first came to the ground in 1927 and returned once the rugby club had moved out, saving the stadium from closure until the last race was run in June 2009.

Which coach led Hull FC to their first Wembley win, then was sacked on live television in 2020?

Lee Radford's exit was announced by the club's chief executive in a TV interview minutes after a 38–4 home defeat; he had won the Challenge Cup in 2016 and again in 2017.

Which Australian scrum-half, a Parramatta great, played for Hull FC in the 1985 Challenge Cup final?

Peter Sterling was such a hot favourite for man of the match that Hull bookmakers reportedly stopped taking bets, yet the award went to his Parramatta half-back partner, playing for Wigan.

Which Hull FC scrum-half was named man of the match in both the 2016 and 2017 Challenge Cup finals?

Marc Sneyd's left boot earned him the Lance Todd Trophy two years running, only the second player to manage it, and in 2019 he kicked Super League's first golden-point winner.

Which tireless Hull FC hooker, the club's captain from 2018, became its first Man of Steel in 2016?

Danny Houghton made a try-saving tackle in the last minutes of that year's Challenge Cup final, and in 2021 he set a record with 85 tackles in a single match.

Which club beat Hull FC 26–4 at Old Trafford in the 2006 Super League Grand Final?

St Helens spoiled a season in which Hull won 13 league games in a row and took more than 20,000 fans to Manchester for the club's first Grand Final.

The Man of Steel award was renamed in 2014 for which former Hull FC fullback and cancer fundraiser?

Steve Prescott was given months to live in 2006 yet survived for seven more years, raising almost half a million pounds through his foundation and earning an MBE.

Which former Leeds and Great Britain forward captained Hull FC to Wembley wins in both 2016 and 2017?

Gareth Ellis came back from three seasons as an Australian club's player of the year to lead Hull, then came out of retirement in 2019 to help them end a 13-game losing run.

Which fullback, a former bricklayer, scored Hull FC's winning try in the 2016 Challenge Cup final?

Jamie Shaul's try settled a 12–10 final, and he was back a year later as Hull kept the trophy, the first time the club had won it in successive seasons.

Whose late try won Hull FC the 2005 Challenge Cup before he defected to Hull Kingston Rovers?

Paul Cooke had grown up supporting the rivals, and his 2007 switch brought a misconduct verdict and a six-game ban for approaching them while under contract.

Which coach, architect of Sheffield Eagles' 1998 cup shock, won the 2005 Challenge Cup with Hull FC?

John Kear had only stepped up from assistant that year, yet he was sacked the following April after a poor start and the holders' exit from the cup at the first hurdle.

Which underdogs beat strong favourites Hull FC 14–12 at Wembley in 1983, a famous Challenge Cup upset?

Featherstone Rovers stunned a side who held the cup and won the league title that year; of the three finals Hull reached that season, only the Yorkshire Cup came home.

After a 14–14 Wembley draw, Hull FC won the 1982 Challenge Cup replay at which football ground?

Elland Road, home of Leeds United, saw Hull beat Widnes 18–9 in front of 41,171, bringing the cup back to The Boulevard for the first time since 1914.

Which Hull FC forward, never dropped in 15 seasons, later coached both Hull clubs and Great Britain?

Johnny Whiteley made 417 appearances for his only club after growing up in a house hit by a bomb in the Hull Blitz, and he entered the sport's Hall of Fame in 2018.

Which Welshman became the first black professional coach in British team sport while at Hull FC?

Roy Francis was years ahead of his time, using psychology and laying on transport for players' families, and his Hull FC sides were crowned league champions twice.

Which star, bought from Hunslet for a record £600 in 1913, did Hull FC name on their match posters?

Billy Batten was famous for hurdling tacklers, a leap later outlawed as dangerous, and his presence reportedly added £500 to the gate receipts at each game.

Which centre, a Hull FC debutant at 17, joined Leeds in 1987 for a then world-record £155,000?

Garry Schofield went on to win the 1990 Golden Boot as the world's best player and the Man of Steel award a year later, both in Leeds colours.

What was built on the site of The Boulevard after Hull FC's old ground was demolished in 2010?

A school, the Boulevard Academy, opened there in 2013, while the old goalposts went to an amateur club and the foundation stones were saved for a memorial.

Hull FC were among the 22 clubs that broke from rugby's amateur rulers in 1895 to form which body?

The Northern Union was born at the George Hotel in Huddersfield and became the Rugby Football League in 1922; Hull FC moved into The Boulevard in the year of the split.

Five brothers formed the core of Hull FC's first team in 1865; what was their father's job?

A vicar, the Reverend Scott of St Mary's Church in Lowgate, was father to all five, and the founders met at his church's young men's fellowship; plumbers and glaziers filled out the side.

Which name was proposed for a merged Hull FC and Hull Kingston Rovers before Super League began?

Humberside was the name on the table, and Hull FC's shareholders even gave the idea general approval before it was thrown out and the two clubs stayed rivals.

Hull FC stayed in Super League in 1999 by merging with which club that had played just one season?

Gateshead Thunder finished sixth in their only season but claimed to have lost £700,000, and the merged club simply played on in Hull under the old name.

Which former Hull City chairman, who took the football club up two divisions, bought Hull FC in 2011?

Adam Pearson bought the entire shareholding with a close friend, Mikey Drake; a decade earlier he had left Leeds United to buy Hull City out of administration.

Whose last-minute penalty beat Halifax 10–9 at Maine Road to win Hull FC the 1956 league championship?

Colin Hutton then switched sides to coach Hull Kingston Rovers for 534 matches, and he ended his days as that club's president.

Which Welsh hooker, nicknamed Bomber, was man of the match as Hull FC lost the 1960 Wembley final?

Tommy Harris took the Lance Todd Trophy despite a 38–5 hammering, played more than 400 games for his only professional club and won the World Cup with Great Britain that year.

Which Australian coach of Hull FC ran five marathons in 1993 to raise money for new players?

Royce Simmons, a one-club Penrith hooker in his playing days, took to the roads after money troubles forced Hull FC to put seven players up for sale.

Which symbol from Hull FC's crest is also picked out in the seats of their stadium's East Stand?

A coronet is a symbol of the city, and the stadium's black, white and amber seats were chosen to stay neutral between the rugby and football clubs that share it.