Odsal memories to look back on as Bradford Bulls say goodbye

The throwback begins on day one in 1934 and takes us all the way to a certain Challenge Cup victory in 2019.

So, strap in and take a ride back in time...

Game One: Bradford Northern 16 Huddersfield 31, September 1934

On June 20, 1933, the club signed a 10-year deal on the site at Odsal Top, with significant amounts of money spent on cleaning up, restoration and construction at a stadium which was to become the biggest in England outside Wembley.

Fifteen months later, Sir Joseph Turner, president of Huddersfield, officially opened the ground ahead of its first game. An experienced Huddersfield side ran out comfortable winners, with Australian winger Ray Markham running in four tries in a 31-16 victory.

It may not have been the ideal start on the pitch, but an iconic rugby league institution was born.

Game Two: Warrington 8 Halifax 4, May 1954

This Challenge Cup Final replay may not have been the most exciting game, but the occasion was infinitely more memorable for matters off the pitch.

The crowd of 102,569 that converged on Odsal that day was a world record until 1999, and is still an all-time British record. Traffic jams reportedly stretched back as far as Oldham, as crowds fought just to get into the venue.

Asked about their recollections of the day, players of both teams admitted they were expecting a crowd nearer to 60,000 and were overwhelmed when they saw the scale of the support as they entered the pitch.

For the record, Warrington won 8-4, thanks to tries from Jim Challinor and Gerry Helme.

Game Three: Great Britain 10 Australia 3, October 1960

The third Rugby League World Cup was staged in England, with the tournament taking on a round-robin format. Great Britain defeated New Zealand 23-8 at Odsal in the opening match, with the action also taking us to Leeds, Wigan and Swinton.

Odsal was the venue once more for the last game, which fortunately for the organisers, turned into a winner takes all "final".

Great Britain won the match, and the tournament, on home turf, as tries from Billy Boston and Mick Sullivan secured a 10-3 win over the men from Down Under.

Game Four: Bradford Northern 20 Hull KR 34, August 1964

Northern folded at the end of 1963, with spiralling debts ensuring that they had to withdraw from the league midway through the season, following a 33-5 defeat to Leigh at Odsal on December 7.

Former players including Trevor Foster and Joe Phillips were part of a consortium determined to ensure that Bradford had a top level rugby league side to be proud of.

The club officially ceased to exist by March 1964, but Foster and his colleagues were informed by Bradford Council that, provided a new club was formed, Odsal would be available to use.

The consortium wasted little time, with Bradford Northern (1964) Ltd formed on April 20, 1964. Four months later, a crowd 14,542, 42 times the gate against Barrow the previous year, showed up at Odsal for club's first official game.

A strong Hull KR side came from behind to ease to a 34-20 victory, but this was a day of celebration, with the result of little importance.

Game Five: Bradford Northern 13 Widnes 5, April 1981

Bradford Northern had a great period of success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the highlight their first-ever Championship wins in 1979-80 and 1980-81.

Club legend Brian Noble had just begun his fledgling rugby league career, and he has fond memories of Northern's encounters with great rivals Widnes at the time, which included a fine 13-5 win at Odsal in April 1981.

Noble, who was 20 at the time, said: "It was a privilege to play with such good people at Bradford around that time, like Len Casey, Keith Bridges and Neil Fox, who was a club legend.

"There was also the older players like Colin Forsyth and Ian Van Bellen, who looked after me when I first broke through.

"Widnes were our biggest rivals over those two seasons, and they had such great players like Tony Myler and Mick Adams, so it was great to be able to beat them."

Game Six: Bradford Northern 12 Featherstone Rovers 32, April 1989

Noble always played in the top flight for Northern, but from the mid-1980s until the early 1990s, the team's performances in the Championship were fairly average.

1991-92 was a particularly bad year, with Bulls only avoiding the drop after wins in their last two games against Swinton (60-0 at Odsal) and Hull KR (14-12 at Craven Park).

Noble's memory goes back a few years earlier and he remembers the atmosphere surrounding a must win clash in April 1989 against Featherstone Rovers, with Northern's relegation battle with Oldham going to the wire.

He said: "We were nearly relegated that year but we won (38-14) against Hull KR at Odsal to stay up.

"We played Featherstone at Odsal earlier that month. The tension and nerves were unbearable and we were well beaten (32-12).

"Back then, you used to have to walk right down from the changing rooms and you didn't want to bother coming back up if you'd lost, as there would be plenty of scuffles between the fans and the players."

Fortunately there were no more scuffles after that Featherstone disaster, as Bulls won their final two games of the season against Oldham (30-10) and Hull KR, both at Odsal, to remain in the top flight, where they remained until the birth of Super League in 1996.

Game Seven: Bradford Bulls 40 St Helens 4, September 1999

Bulls destroyed St Helens 40-4 in a scintillating play-off semi-final performance at Odsal, as they looked all set to wrap up their second title in three years, following their maiden Super League success in 1997.

Henry Paul grabbed a brace of tries, while there were further scores from Stuart Fielden, Scott Naylor, Michael Withers and Tevita Vaikona.

Steve Macnamara and Paul Deacon were also successful with their goal kicking, with a 100 per cent success rate from the eight attempts they took between them.

Noble was on the coaching staff at the time, and 20 years later, still sounded disbelieving when remembering how Bulls lost the Grand Final to the same opposition just two weeks afterwards.

He recalled: "I remember more about games at Odsal from my coaching days, and I'll always remember how we flogged St Helens by about 40 points in the play-offs.

"We absolutely flogged them, so it was a shock to lose to them (8-6) at Old Trafford in the Grand Final two weeks later.

"Obviously, I'd have exchanged that brilliant performance at Odsal for something in the Grand Final instead."

Game Eight: Bradford Bulls 22 Leeds Rhinos 21, September 2003

Two epic encounters with Leeds Rhinos during Bulls' golden era in Super League battled it out for one spot in our Odsal top 10.

Just missing out was their riveting end-of-season clash in 1999. There were tries for Nathan McAvoy, Leon Pryce and Tevita Vaikona, as well as three goals from Steve Macnamara, but the scores were level with seconds left to play.

Up stepped Australian Michael Withers, who sunk his first-ever drop goal for the club to secure a memorable 19-18 success in front of a then Super League record crowd of 24,020.

Asked by the T&A earlier this month about his favourite Odsal memory, Pryce said: "As a player, it was when played Leeds in 1999.

"It was my first proper season and I think it was a record crowd for Super League at that time, about 24,000. So to win in front of a packed crowd was special."

However, it would be remiss not to bring up an Odsal memory from the extraordinary 2003 season, which saw them secure the first-ever modern day treble (League Leaders Shield, Grand Final win and Challenge Cup win) in rugby league.

So just making the cut ahead of Bulls' 1999 clash with Leeds was their heart-stopping game against the same opposition in September 2003, which was secured with a late, late drop-goal from Paul Deacon in front of 21,102 fans.

Bulls roared into a 14-6 lead thanks to tries from Deacon and Stuart Reardon, but things started to go wrong. Willie Poching's scored a try and a Kevin Sinfield conversion and penalty drew the Rhinos level.

Bulls' Jimmy Lowes was then sent to the bin, and Sinfield's drop goal put Leeds in front for the first time. Lowes came back to set up a converted Lesley Vainikolo try, but Sinfield's late score brought the game level at 21-21.

But after Leeds lost possession deep in their half, Deacon stepped up in the 78th minute to write his name into Bulls folklore.

Game Nine: Bradford Bulls 71 Hull 0, October 2005

This end-of-season play-off clash was expected to be a tough encounter. John Kear's Hull side had won the Challenge Cup final in August 2005 after an epic 25-24 victory over Leeds and had finished a solid fifth in the regular season.

Many of those in attendance at Odsal were expecting a close encounter, but Bulls blew their visitors out of the water with an astonishing performance.

Lesley Vainikolo ran in four tries and Paul Deacon struck 10 goals, as Bulls recorded the biggest ever play-offs win (71-0) in the Super League era.

They carried the momentum from this crushing win into their next two games, defeating St Helens 23-18 at Knowsley Road in the Final Eliminator, before beating Leeds 15-6 in the Grand Final at Old Trafford.

Game 10: Bradford Bulls 24 Leeds Rhinos 22, May 2019

This was Bulls' first competitive game against the Rhinos since being liquidated two years previously. Leeds had made a poor start to the Super League season, but were still expected to easily overpower their old rivals from the Championship.

Bulls were in good form, though, having won seven on the bounce before a 36-16 defeat to Toronto Wolfpack the previous week.

They carried that good run into this sixth round Challenge Cup clash at Odsal, overturning an early 12-0 deficit to lead 22-12 at the break.

Leeds came back strongly in the second half, but a late Tom Briscoe try was not enough for them, as Bulls pulled off a famous 24-22 victory.

It was a memory for the ages, and a fitting highlight in Bulls' final season at Odsal.

Bulls say goodbye to Odsal against Sheffield Eagles this weekend, but what a ride it's been.