TWENTY years on since Super League was formed and it is no wonder that Chris Caisley is a little misty-eyed.

The former Bulls chairman is reminiscing about the club's pivotal role in the success of the competition during the past two decades.

Super League returns tonight and, as Bradford prepare for their second season outside the top flight, it is perhaps easy to forget they were once its standard bearers.

"Maurice Lindsay, the RFL chief executive at the time, always said that if it wasn't for the Bulls then Super League wouldn't have been the success that it ultimately became," says Caisley.

"We didn't set out to simply put a team on the park – we wanted to create something much bigger than that."

This, they most certainly did.

Caisley, who served as chairman between 1989 and 2006, saw the advent of Super League as an ideal opportunity to develop a completely new approach on and off the field.

In the 1995 centenary season, Bradford Northern transformed themselves into the Bulls with surprisingly little opposition.

By the time Super League arrived, Bradford had completely redefined themselves from a traditional rugby league club into a family-orientated, community-based franchise complete with razzmatazz.

Innovative coach Brian Smith arrived from Sydney and appointed compatriot Matthew Elliott as his assistant.

The 1995 season was used as a trial and building period as Smith established structures that would stand the club in good stead for years to come.

Caisley remembers: "Getting Brian here was the feather in the cap really because he put foundations in place that we needed on the coaching and development side.

"He also recognised the absolute need for us to be as good off the pitch as we were on it.

"I went across to Australia, met him for a long chat and he eventually agreed to come over.

"He couldn't come straight away because he had his other commitments, so he sent Matthew Elliott over in advance, as it were.

"Matty began training the players up to full-time levels of fitness and assisted in the recruitment of players because we desperately needed to strengthen the squad from a part-time operation to a full-time professional outfit.

"At that time only two teams were fully professional – Wigan and Leeds.

"It was key to us to get people on board who recognised just what we needed if we were going to be able to compete.

"Having done that, we started the shortened 1995/96 season knowing there was no promotion or relegation.

"Brian said 'I'm not worried about this, the main thing is to use it to improve as a club'. That's exactly what we did."

Marketing guru Peter Deakin played a pivotal role in 'Bullmania', the legendary game-day experience at Odsal.

Keighley had introduced 'Cougarmania' at Cougar Park but the Bulls took the concept to another level.

Deakin transformed unfashionable Bradford Northern into brand leaders, while Gary Tasker, the company secretary who later become general manager, drove this new philosophy forward.

The tone was set and by the time Super League arrived, a rugby league institution and a city was ready.

Caisley said: "Towards the end of 1995, I was off for six weeks with a neck operation and I used it to prepare the strategic plan for the club.

"When I got fit, I had everybody round to my house at Foulridge – Brian Smith, the directors of the club, Gary Tasker and Peter Deakin.

"We worked our way through it, so it was important that everybody bought into it.

"Then, having done that, we had to get the players and staff to buy into it.

"A big part of that was to create this game-day experience for everybody and that we hit the ground running.

"We only had a matter of weeks basically by then to get everything ready for the new season; the entertainment that we would put on as part of the game-day experience.

"I think our average home crowd in the shortened season was 4,500 and by the end of the 1996 season we had exceeded 10,000.

"The aim at the time when we prepared the plan was to get to 8,000, which I thought was achievable, but we surpassed that.

"We dragged a lot of clubs up by their boot-heels and I remember watching the pre-match entertainment at Oldham in the first season of Super League.

"It consisted of some sort of Tina Turner lookalike stood on a box on a freezing night at the Watersheddings!

"At that time nobody was doing what we were doing and nobody was buying into it.

"Gradually the penny dropped with a lot of other clubs and they followed suit, in particular Leeds.

"Who knows where the game would have gone had Super League not proved a success?

"Would it have shrivelled back and been a real problem in that would the broadcasters have thought it wasn't worth the investment?"

The year of 1996 was an exciting time, almost surreal, as the mud, wind, fog and rain of winter gave way to glorious sunshine.

Summer rugby league was here, televised on Sky, as it still is two decades on, and paid by for Rupert Murdoch's millions.

This anecdote from Caisley summed up the prevailing mood: "There was talk back then of clubs not using the central monies in the wisest way.

"In fact, I remember when we went to play Paris St Germain and we met a bunch of directors from a club who shall remain nameless at Leeds-Bradford Airport... they were off to Marbella!

"But we put in place a plan that gave us a headstart."

A total of 23 players were signed and the transfer of Paul Newlove to St Helens brought in Bernard Dwyer, Paul Loughlin and Sonny Nickle, who soon became the foundation of a new team.

Jimmy Lowes, Steve McNamara and Glen Tomlinson also came on board.

A final position of third in the inaugural 1996 Super League season was just a stepping stone on the way to future success.

Not even a Challenge Cup final defeat, 40-32 to St Helens, could halt the momentum of the Bulls phenomenon.

The club recognised the importance of their position as part of the community.

Caisley said: "I know that Sky used to love coming to Odsal on those nights when we got big crowds of 14/15,000 and they used us very much as their advertising vehicle for the whole of Super League.

"We had a good partnership with them and I remember before the start of Super League going to see Perry Austin-Clarke, the editor at the T&A, and telling him what we wanted to achieve.

"I think he thought I was off my rocker when I told him about the game-day experience plans.

"I said 'we need the T&A to be our partner in this, to come onside and work with us to create the PR aspect of it'.

"Getting Peter Deakin on board to deliver the plan was another coup and he delivered that message, while Sky were keen for us to be their face.

"We had people like Gary Tasker behind the scenes who were just getting on with the job of making it all work.

"It showed that when people came on game-day they had the experience we wanted them to have and make them want to come again.

"Win or lose, we want the fans to enjoy themselves when they come here to give them value for money and a great day out.

"As it turned out, we managed to produce a winning team and the game-day experience we were looking for."

The list of players who made their mark at the Bulls is endless, of course.

So who did Caisley rate most highly?

The former Odsal chairman said: "I think Robbie (Hunter-Paul) was most certainly up there for a number of reasons, one of them being his charisma.

"He very quickly became our franchise player, not that he looked it when I picked him up as a teenager off the plane from New Zealand.

"We asked him to become our face, if you like, and to become appointed captain at such a young age said a lot for how he was viewed by his fellow professionals and the coaching staff.

"Jimmy Lowes would certainly have to be high on my list because if I want somebody in the trenches with me, Jimmy would always be there.

"I remember when he was playing for Leeds against Bradford and thinking 'anyone who picks a fight with Karl Fairbank must be worth having in your side'.

"There were so many good players from the UK and overseas who the present side would just die to have.

"You had Stuart Spruce, who was just absolutely dependable, and the 'Awesome Foursome' with lads like Brian McDermott.

"Joe Vagana must be up there for sheer force of personality. Players like Danny Peacock, who Matthew Elliott described as a 'running elbow', and the player who I always thought was extremely underrated was Danny Gartner.

"Then of course you've got players like Les (Vainikolo) and I thought Tevita Vaikona was an outstanding winger who did more than just score tries.

"We brought so many players over and then later on we had the likes of Jamie Peacock, who showed tremendous character as a young man to go over to Australia to better himself.

"He came back to be the force he was for us and later for Leeds.

"Graeme Bradley has to be in there too because nobody liked playing against him, as well as guys such as Mick Withers."

Tasker, a Bradford lad who grew up in Odsal and returned as interim chief executive in 2012 when the Bulls went into administration, looks back with pride at what the club once were.

"Robbie was the most marketable player in the competition and that made the job of the off-field staff easier," Tasker said.

"The presence of the likes of Graeme Bradley and Jimmy Lowes, alongside unsung heroes like Bernard Dwyer and Brian McDermott, gave us a squad dynamic that was incredibly difficult to break down.

"Off the field we really innovated in putting together a multi-faceted marketing programme that had not really been seen in British sport before. This was spearheaded by the inimitable Peter Deakin, or as the press labelled him – Mr Magic!

"We created a robust community development programme with players out in the community every week on scheduled appearances and complemented this by a vibrant game-day experience that was designed to entertain the whole family.

"As you would expect, our media management was second to none.

"Game-day certainly did the trick, with helicopters landing on the centre spot before kick-off and 60 Harley Davidsons circling the track at half-time – the entertainment was constant.

"I would meet people in the stadium who had come from other clubs as well as all parts of the UK to join the experience – they had heard the hype and got the bug.

"All this was supported and driven by an unbelievably committed staff delivering high-quality customer service as standard."

Hunter-Paul, who came to symbolise the Bulls' brand and their Super League success, is now among the team tasked with leading the club back to the top flight.

The Odsal chief executive said: "A lot of people say that Bradford helped Super League to become the success it was.

"That gives you a great sense of pride – but also sorrow because we weren't able to capitalise on that.

"In 1996, we created something brand new and built it from the ground up again.

"Now 20 years on it's about re-engaging with that audience who came before and helping them to understand that the club is rebuilding again.

"The only way we do it is if we do it together, because that's the way this club was built. People like Chris Caisley, Rowland Agar and Jack Bates were not multi-millionaires.

"The players, the performance department, the administration side of the business and the supporters all came together as a community 20 years ago.

"That built the club into the powerhouse that it was. It can happen again."