Yorkshire has plenty of success as it helps game grow

But there can be little doubt as to how big a role Yorkshire has played in the evolution of a competition that will this season celebrate its 125th anniversary.

White Rose clubs have both dominated and been at the mercy of football since Sheffield United and neighbours, The Wednesday, first entered the fray four years after the League’s inception in 1888.

The good times have included League Championships, 11 in total, plus a host of divisional titles and promotions. On the flipside, clubs have come and gone – from the ill-fated Leeds City through to Scarborough and Halifax Town in more recent times.

Tragedy has also stalked the county’s football scene, as has hooliganism and even a betting scandal to ensure that Yorkshire has never been far from the headlines.

Here, chief football writer Richard Sutcliffe looks back on both the exhilirating highs and the crushing lows that have characterised League football within the Broad Acres.

HAD Hilton Crowther got his way shortly after the end of World War One, the history of Yorkshire football could have been very different.

The Huddersfield businessman, whose family had bankrolled Town’s entry into the Football League, proposed in late 1919 to move the club to Leeds and amalgamate with newly-formed United at Elland Road.

Crowther, whose patience had run out when the gate receipts for a Town home game had come to just £90 on the same day the rugby league club banked £1,600 from a bumper crowd at Fartown, even got as far as seeking League approval for the move.

In the end, however, the plan was de-railed as a galvanised support rode to the Terriers’ rescue. Town stayed put, won promotion to Division One at the end of that very season and then, nine months later, appointed Herbert Chapman as the assistant to manager Ambrose Langley.

By the summer, Langley had gone and Chapman was officially in charge. Success followed instantly, the FA Cup being won in 1922 following an ill-tempered final against Preston North End.

Two years later, Huddersfield prevailed in a First Division title race that proved every bit as close as Manchester City’s triumph in 2012 when Sergio Aguero wrote his name into Premier League folklore.

Going into the final day, Town trailed leaders Cardiff City by a point as relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest headed to Leeds Road and the Welsh club hosted Birmingham City.

At half-time, Town led thanks to a George Cook goal but still trailed Cardiff, who were drawing 0-0, on goal average. It was then that things got interesting as, early in the second half, the home side were awarded a penalty at Ninian Park. Two Cardiff players refused to take the spot-kick before Len Davis stepped up. And missed.

Back at Leeds Road, Cook doubled Huddersfield’s advantage but it still wasn’t enough. Town needed a third, which duly arrived when George Brown netted just after the hour mark. Come the final whistle, confirmation came through that Cardiff had been held and a delegation of officials headed for an office under the main stand to get down to some serious maths work. Eventually, though, it was confirmed. Huddersfield were champions, by a goal average that was 0.024 superior to that of Cardiff.

Twelve months on, Town were again crowned champions with a game to spare. Chapman, after being courted by Arsenal with a ‘double your salary’ offer, chose that moment to bow out.

Initially, Huddersfield continued their dominance and the title was won again in 1926 as the Yorkshire club finished five points clear of Chapman’s Gunners in second place. In time, however, Arsenal would become the team to catch in the Football League with the Championship trophy residing at Highbury in four of the five seasons from 1930-31.

Before then, though, another Yorkshire club ruled the roost with Sheffield Wednesday claiming back-to-back titles for the second time in their history.

The first two had come in 1902-03 and 1903-04, when the club was known as The Wednesday. Considering Sheffield United, with 22-stone Bill ‘Fatty’ Foulke in goal, had become Yorkshire’s first title winners in 1896-97, Wednesday’s own triumphs were the perfect retort to their Steel City rivals.

Entertainment was not, however, what Wednesday’s success was built on with just 102 goals being scored across those two seasons. Being unashamedly hard to break down was key, with goalkeeper Jack Lyall being beaten just 28 times during that second title-winning campaign.

This was in stark contrast to the Owls team that made it five Yorkshire title wins in seven seasons.

Unlike their goal-shy predecessors of 1902-04, Wednesday attacked with relish and centre-forward Jack Allen netted 33 times in both campaigns.

Arsenal’s rise under Chapman and the subsequent decline of Yorkshire football before and after the Second World War meant the county had to wait another 39 years for its next title triumph. And it would be won by a team who, even now the best part of five decades on, are revered and reviled in equal measure.

For their first four decades, Leeds United had rarely amounted to much. There had been John Charles, one of the greatest to play the game, and a couple of promotions. But that was about it in a city where rugby league still dominated.

All that changed with the appointment of Don Revie, who during 13 years at the helm built a legacy that, even now with Leeds about to embark on a 10th year outside the Premier League, continues to resonate.

One of his first moves was to ditch the gold and blue shirts that United had sported since filling the void left by Leeds City’s expulsion from the League in 1919 following an illegal payments scandal. In the place of the city’s livery colours came the all white of Real Madrid.

“We shall be like Real Madrid, feared by everyone and challenging for everything,” Revie told a sceptical Yorkshire Post. It was an audacious move, akin to Ipswich Town today adopting the red and blue of Barcelona before outlining their intention to ape the success of Messi and co.

In Leeds’s case, however, it worked as promotion in 1964 was followed by a decade that saw the Yorkshire club never finish lower than fourth.

Two titles were won. The first, in 1968-69, came via a record points tally of 67. A goalless draw at Liverpool was the decisive result, the Kop, displaying great sportsmanship, memorably chanting ‘champions, champions...’ as a sceptical Billy Bremner heeded Revie’s instructions to take the trophy to the massed bank of home supporters.

Five years later, Leeds was again celebrating a Championship success as Revie’s final season before becoming England manager became, a late wobble in form apart, little more than a title procession as Bremner and his team-mates finished five points clear at the summit of English football.

Revie’s departure, the crazy decision to hand the job to arch-critic Brian Clough and an ageing squad meant that 1974 triumph proved to be swansong to a remarkable era at Elland Road. It didn’t, though, prove to be the club’s last success with Howard Wilkinson leading United to a third Championship.

It was the final season before the advent of the Premier League and may, as a result, have been rather lost in the mists of time. But try telling any Leeds supporters from the era that the 1991-92 success is any less deserving of praise than Yorkshire’s previous 10 title triumphs and the reply will be short and sweet.

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