CELEBRATING THE FIRST 40 YEARS

If Gary Hetherington had been offered the job of the manager at York in 1981 then the Sheffield Eagles would have never existed. Instead he used that unsuccessful interview as the inspiration for creating the new club that became the Eagles. You can read more about the motivation, challenges and achievements of Kath and Gary Hetherington in order to have a team in place for that first ever game on 2nd September 1984 HERE.

There are not many rugby league clubs that can say it, but thanks to Dean Palmer, we have full footage of that first ever Sheffield Eagles game, including commentary. Dean's parents were both at that first game and had a VHS copy of the game that was digitised. Dean's parents helped run the Eagles Colts team in the late 1980s with Dean playing for them and the original Hillsborough Hawks team. Commentary on the game was by Martyn Sadler now the editor of the League Express - at the time he was a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. As you can imagine the picture quality isn't what we're used to today - it's transferred from an almost 40 year old VHS tape. It does capture the occasion though and the historic first appearance of the Sheffield Eagles.

You can read a review of the first ever Sheffield Eagles season, the highs and the lows, the successes and the challenges HERE.

Thanks to the hard work of Eagles' fan Ian Swain he has researched and written summaries of every one of the 40 seasons in the Club's history to date. Almost 30 have been added to the website to create a comprehensive timeline. The remaining seasons will be added before the end of September. It's a chance for you to relive your favourite seasons or learn more about the years before you started watching the Club.

The Heritage Project has created a photographic record of as many shirts as possible - home, away, third and special kits - that the Sheffield Eagles have played in since their first game on 2nd September 1984.

The shirts photographed are a mix of those held by the Club and Brian Moore, the Club's kit manager - which includes many shirts donated to the Club by long term fan Dean Mitchell. Additional shirts were loaned for photography by Jo Stanser-Collins, Mark Webster, Dave Mappin, Michael Stringer, Gary Hetherington and Richard King. Some gaps remain, if you have any of missing shirts then please get in touch and we will see if we can arrange for them to be photographed. The shirts were photographed by Jake Borrill, with further photographs by Richard King.

Why not look for your favourite shirt or look back in time to see how the shirts have changed? You can find them all HERE.

The Heritage Project has worked with a group of volunteers to develop a 24 page booklet that tries to capture 40 years of the Sheffield Eagles and what the Club means to people. The title really captures the approach we've taken that is more than a straight historic record. 24 pages could never hope to cover every part of the history so the group focused on a different angle. There are stories about how the Club started, how there is a sense of family about the Eagles, the ups and downs of 40 years, what the spirit of the Eagles is, playing at 21 home grounds in 40 years, homegrown talent, the Eagles at Wembley, mascot memories, 40 years of change and the future. The group of seven - Steve Dalton, Jo Stanser-Collins, Dean Mitchell, Harry Welburn, Ian Swain, Alicia Newton and Sarra Bingley were supported by rugby league journalist Gareth Walker who we'd previously worked with as part of his Literacy Kicks project. The booklet has been designed by Eleven Design who we also worked with in designing our children's activity booklet. We really hope you like it and enjoy the approach we've taken. Free copies are available through the Club and you can also read the stories (and download a pdf version) HERE.

25th July 2024 saw the start of the countdown of "40 from 40 Years" - the list of 40 players each representing a season from the 40 years of the Sheffield Eagles. The final player was revealed on 2nd September, 40 years to the day of the Sheffield Eagles first competitive game - a 29-10 win against the Rochdale Hornets.

This list was put together by the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project who asked fans to nominate a player from each season. These nominations were then narrowed down to three from each year with fans asked to vote for one from each season. This then created the "40 from 40 years" and we're sure there's going to be plenty of discussions about who has been included and who hasn't. 551 players have played for the men's team so far, so it was really difficult to narrow them down to 40.

You can find full details of the list HERE.

In addition the Heritage Project produced a set of 40 cards to create a Sheffield Eagles card game. Each player has their own scores for the categories shown, The cards were on sale at the Heritage Game on the 8th September with only 300 packs for sale.

The Heritage Project produced a free, 24 page booklet, aimed at 6-14 years olds available for free at Sheffield Eagles games, through the work of the Eagles Foundation and as a download. Find out more HERE.

A set of five postcards, covering the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. Available for free (whilst stocks last) at Sheffield Eagles games.

You can see 40 years of Sheffield Eagles logos HERE.

The Heritage Project produced a very special 40 years commemorative badge bringing together the first shirt and the most recent one. These were on sale at the Heritage Game with a strictly limited number of 200 for sale.

On the 5th September 2024 the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project working with the Sheffield Eagles held a celebration dinner to mark the 40th anniversary of the Sheffield Eagles. The night was introduced by compere Pete Emmett talking to Andy Tyers who played in the first ever Sheffield Eagles game and is Heritage Number 1.

The first panel discussion of the night focused on the challenges of establishing the Club, surviving the first few years and what it was like to be part of it. We were lucky to have Gary Hetherington, Kath Hetherington, Daryl Powell and Mark Gamson join us to share their stories.

The second panel discussion of the night focused on how the Club was rebuilt after being merged with Huddersfield Giants in 1999 and what is was like to be part of that "phoenix" club. We were lucky to have Ian Swire, Gavin Brown, Jack Howieson, Jonny Woodcock and Andrew Henderson join us to share their stories.

The third panel discussion of the night focused on how the Club has changed over the last 40 years and what the future holds. We were lucky to have Anthony Thackeray, Quentin Laulu Togaga’e, Tori Thomas, Cory Aston and David Butler join us to share their stories.

A short overview film of the night was also produced, capturing some of the atmosphere.

The 2024 Heritage Game (the home game each year closest to the anniversary of the first ever game) included a special edition of the programme that the Club produced. The Heritage Project organised an event before the match bringing together past players and staff from both the men’s and women’s team. Over 40 attended a drinks reception, then being presented to the crowd before the game. You can watch footage of that event below.

As part of the day we also captured footage of the Heritage Game, the women's teams games and the wheelchair games along with asking what it felt to be part of the Sheffield Eagles. You can watch those films below.