A Wembley derby emptied Hull so completely that a sign asked for lights off
Hull splits its rugby league loyalties along the River Hull: Hull FC to the west, Hull Kingston Rovers to the east. When the two met in the 1980 Challenge Cup final at Wembley, so much of the city travelled south that a sign on the main road out told the last person leaving to turn the lights off.
Rovers won that 1979–80 final 10–5 in front of 95,000 spectators, with Steve Hubbard scoring nine of their points. Their coach and captain Roger Millward played the full match despite breaking his jaw early on. The scoreline lives on in a bar named 10–5 inside their ground, Craven Park.
The club started in 1882 when apprentice boilermakers from the Hessle Road area formed Kingston Amateurs, playing first on a patch of wasteland in Albert Street and renaming themselves Kingston Rovers by 1885. They stayed out of the Northern breakaway league when it formed in 1895, joining later. On 4 March 1905 they thrashed Brookland Rovers 73–5, with G.H. 'Tich' West piling up 53 points through 11 tries plus 10 goals, a haul that remains unmatched in the sport worldwide. Their red and white kit earned them the nickname the Robins.
Money troubles forced a sale of Craven Park to a greyhound racing company in 1938 for 10,750 pounds, with a 21-year lease allowing play to continue; profits from a later land deal eventually bought it back. The club lost its first Wembley final to Widnes in 1964 before 84,488 fans, signed Millward from Castleford in 1966 for 6,000 pounds and paid a then world-record 35,000 pounds for Phil Hogan in 1978. In 1908 they had beaten the first touring Australian side.
The modern era has swung between extremes. After ten seasons in Super League from 2007, Rovers dropped to the Championship in 2016 via the so-called Million Pound Game, then bounced straight back the next year. In 2025 they took their first League Leaders' Shield and Grand Final, and in 2026 their first World Club Challenge, having won six league titles and two Challenge Cups.
Source: Hull Kingston Rovers
