Hull City were founded on 28 June 1904, in a city where rugby was king. On 28 June 2027 the Tigers turn 123. And they will celebrate it back in the Premier League.

Football in a rugby city

In Hull the public was devoted to its two rugby league clubs, Hull FC and Hull KR, and football struggled to find room. According to Ernest Morison, one of the first directors, it all began with three enthusiastic young men who found players, grounds and fixtures before they had even set up a company.

The first match was a friendly against Notts County on 1 September 1904, a 2-2 draw in front of about 6,000 people at the Boulevard, home of Hull FC. A year later the club joined the Second Division of the Football League.

Amber and black from day one

For years it was said that Hull started out in white shirts. The club's kit historians have shown this is a myth: as early as 24 August 1904 the Hull Daily Mail reported that the team would wear vertical amber and black stripes.

The white shirts in old photos were simply the change kit. The team wore them, for example, in November 1904 against Bradford City, whose colours were similar.

In March 1905 a writer for the same paper, using the pen name Athleo, was inspired by the stripes and called the team "the Tigers". The nickname never went away.

Stripes, a "banana" and a tiger on the shirt

The club tried many variations: stripes, plain amber, even a one-colour kit with black bands that fans mocked as the "banana strip". By 1949 a tiger's head had appeared on the shirt, and it returned to the badge in 1979.

The most legendary shirt is Matchwinner's 1992 design printed like tiger skin. Many have listed it among the worst of all time, but the fans loved it, and its 2024 reissue was in demand straight away.

Boothferry Park, Wembley and Europe

A first big surprise came in 1930, when the team reached the FA Cup semi-finals. There it took a replay for Arsenal to knock them out 1-0.

After the war Hull moved to Boothferry Park, where a 1949 FA Cup tie against Manchester United drew the record crowd of 55,019. Stars there included player-manager Raich Carter, Ken Wagstaff and Chris Chilton, the club's record goalscorer.

Since 2002 the team has played at what is now the MKM Stadium. In 2008 a volley from Dean Windass in the play-off final at Wembley took Hull into the Premier League for the first time.

In 2014 they reached the FA Cup final and led Arsenal 2-0 before losing 3-2 after extra time. The following season they played in Europe for the first time.

The 2026 return

The years that followed had their turmoil, with fans strongly opposing then-owner Assem Allam's plan to rename the club "Hull Tigers". Since 2022 the owner has been Turkish media businessman Acun Ilıcalı.

In 2025-26 Hull finished sixth in the Championship, beat Millwall in the play-off semi-finals and won the final against Middlesbrough with a 95th-minute goal from Oli McBurnie. And so the Tigers returned to the Premier League.

Celebrate with us

From a city that lived for rugby to the big stadiums of the Premier League, Hull have always kept the amber and black. Happy 123rd birthday to the Tigers!

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: The North Stand at the MKM Stadium – NONONSENSEDEFENDING, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.