Heritage Project Review

The Club created a Hall of Fame in 2006 including both players and those who had contributed to the Club off the field. No one had been added to the Hall of Fame since 2016 and details of who was in it could only be found by visiting the Club’s office. The Heritage Project relaunched the Hall of Fame in 2022, also creating a Roll of Honour alongside it. The Hall of Fame is for players, the Roll of Honour for non-players who have contributed to the Club in other ways. New inductees were added to the Hall of Fame in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and to the Roll of Honour in 2022 and 2023 as part of the Club’s annual end of season presentation night. You can find full details of who is in the Hall of Fame and Roll of Honour HERE.

In 2023 The Heritage Project coordinated a series of events and activities to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sheffield Eagles win in the 1998 Challenge Cup Final, considered the biggest upset in the history of Rugby League. The celebrations included a dinner at the OEC conference centre in Sheffield. At this public event (attended by nearly 250 people) players from the 1998 Squad shared their memories, a special commemorative brochure was produced for the night and a limited edition pin badge handed out. Footage of theon stage question and answer session can be found via the Heritage Project’s YouTube channel HERE. You can read more about the Challenge Cup win HERE.

The extension of the Project enabled the 40th anniversary of the Sheffield Eagles first game on 2nd September 1984 to form a central part of the last six months of the Project, with a range of events and activities.

Celebration Dinner

A celebration dinner was held on the 5th September 2024 attended by over 200 people. The Heritage Project created the structure for the evening, writing the script and questions that guided the evening. The evening was introduced by Andy Tyers who played in the first ever game and is the Club’s Heritage Number 1. He was followed by three onstage question and answer panels including people from three key eras of the Club. The Heritage Project also filmed the evening so that those that didn’t attend the evening could hear what was said. All the footage is now on the Heritage Project’s YouTube channel HERE. You can read more about the 40th anniversary celebrations HERE.

40 from 40 Years

The Heritage Project developed the idea of "40 from 40 Years" - 40 Sheffield Eagles players, each representing one season from the Club's history. The list was put together by asking 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 year. With the list in place a countdown began 40 days before the 40th anniversary with one player being announced each day to represent each of the seasons from 1984-85 to 2023. It was then announced on the anniversary that a card game had been produced by the Project, featuring all the players, that would be on sale to raise funds for the work of the Foundation. You can read more about “40 from 40 Years” HERE.

Badge

As with the 25th anniversary of the Challenge Cup win the Heritage Project designed and produced a special edition badge to mark the 40th anniversary, bringing together the first shirt and the 2024 kit. This was put on sale to raise funds for the work of the Eagles Foundation.

Anniversary Booklet

The Heritage Project invited fans of the Club to be involved in the creation of a 24 page booklet to mark the 40th anniversary of the Club. Seven people volunteered and formed an editorial group, attending online meetings to develop the approach and content for the booklet. They were supported by rugby league journalist Gareth Walker who provided advice and suggestions. The volunteers were involved in all aspects from what to include, writing articles, fact checking and proof reading. 1,500 copies of the booklet were produced and given away free of charge at the Heritage Game, celebration dinner, past players event and presentation night. It will continue to be used in the future and is also available to download from the Heritage Project’s website. You can read the online version HERE.

Heritage Game

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 of them 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.

Website

The Project worked with the web developers, HIVE IT, sto create a website to share the heritage of the Sheffield Eagles in a way that is attractive, interesting. easy to find and readable. The website was launched in January 2023 and by the end of September 2024 around 4,100 documents and 46 stories had been added, with 3,181 visits to the website and 24,716 pages views.

The stories have been produced by the Heritage Officer and volunteers focusing on a range of subjects and areas of interest. Volunteers have been actively encouraged to research and write stories which are then uploaded to the site.

The collections are a chance to share the wealth of photos, documents and other items shared by the Club and fans. The site includes the playing records (and heritage numbers) of all 551 players who have played for the men’s team along with details of the Hall of Fame and Roll of Honour, supported by a large collection of programmes, photos, videos and documents.

A timeline has been produced covering every year of the history of the Club and volunteer Ian Swain has researched and written a summary of each one the 41 seasons of the Club to date.

The website will continue to evolve and grow and the Foundation are committed to maintaining the site and covering the hosting costs. The web domain sits under that of the Club so will remain in place for the future. 

Programmes

Ian Swain also scanned his collection of Sheffield Eagles programmes and press cuttings, talking with other fans to fill any gaps in the programme collection. These have now all been uploaded to the website meaning there is a searchable collection of 969 programmes accessible to all. It is calculated that the Sheffield Eagles have played 1,264 games and not every one of those will have had a programme produced. Therefore it is likely that nearly 85% of every Eagles programme, home or away are now available. You can search for programmes on the "Collections" page HERE.

DVDs / CDs

Once the Project was underway a large collection of DVDs, CDs and VHS tapes were found in the Sheffield Eagles office. The Heritage Officer catalogued these and digitised the CDs and DVDs himself, with the remaining VHS digitised by a volunteer, Steve Hogan. It was also discovered that the Club’s kit manager, Brian Moore, had a collection of DVDs, many of which were versions of VHS tapes he had transferred. As a result of this research a total of 412 games have been transferred to the Foundation’s OneDrive with 50 added so far to the Heritage Project’s YouTube channel. You can find the YouTube channel HERE.

Press Cuttings

In addition to the press cuttings collected and scanned by Ian Swain a number of drawers of press cuttings were found in the Eagles office along with a range of scrapbooks. This included a collection of 10 scrapbooks put together by Eagles fan Annie Sten and her daughter covering the 1998 season as something for them to work on together. 1998 proved to be a key season for the Club as they won the Challenge Cup that year so the scrapbooks document that whole time. All these items have been scanned or digitised.

Photographs

Within the CDs were folders of photos taken by various photographers which hadn’t been catalogued. These were then combined with the physical photos (subsequently scanned) found in the drawers in the Eagles office to create a collection of 18,204 photos which are now organised in digital folders on a season by season basis.

Initial discussions took place with the community curator at Weston Park Museum in Sheffield in 2022 to see if there were any items of interest from the Project that could form part of their collection. This developed further with opportunity to have a display case in the “Life and Times of Sheffield” section of the Museum for 18 months focused on the Sheffield Eagles. The museum has an annual footfall of 250,000 providing a great opportunity raise the profile of the Project and the history of the Club. A freelance curator, Jemma Conway, was appointed to work with fans and the Club, shadowed by a volunteer. The case was launched on 2nd May 2023 and Sheffield Museums also delivered a children’s workshop in the August 2023 linked to the display case raising awareness of the case, the Club and the Project. The display case is continuing at the Museum until they reach a point where they have a subject to replace it.

An oral history training day was held in February 2023. This involved 8 volunteers – some with links to the Eagles others not, learning more about the theory and practice of oral history recordings. Oral history specialists were then employed to carry out a series of interviews with a range of people linked to the Club including people like long term fan Kath Owen, Head of Rugby Mark Aston, former Chair Ian Swire, women’s team player Capucine Auger and Club Chaplain Baz Gascoyne. In total 14 recordings have been made and the Project is looking to lodge the recordings with local archives and be used by the Eagles Foundation for future work.

Every player who has played for the Sheffield Eagles is given a heritage number, marking the point that they played for the Club. The most recent heritage number awarded for the men’s team was 551 - Matty Marsh. The Heritage Project created a format for heritage certificates to present to players marking that they played for the Sheffield Eagles. Andy Tyers played for the Club in the first ever game and is heritage number one, so he was presented with his certificate by the Club’s president Chris Noble MBE. Certificates for all 551 men’s team players were produced, on thick PVC meaning there is no need to frame them. By the end of the Project 85 had been handed to players at the half time of games or on special occasions. The project’s adviser, Ian Swire, also spends time in France so was also able to present certificates to former players from France. The remaining certificates have been placed with the Club for them to hand out when contacted by players. Certificates were also produced for all 33 players who have played for the wheelchair team since it was formed in 2021. It was not possible to produce similar ones for the women’s team at this stage due to gaps in information.

The Heritage Project has been actively involved with Sporting Heritage, the national organisation for sporting heritage, by taking part in National Sporting Heritage Day in 2022, 2023 and 2024. In 2022 the Heritage Project hosted a free film screening of Power Meri, a documentary about the Papua New Guinea women’s team at the 2017 World Cup. This was shown in partnership with the Women in League project, also funded by the Heritage Fund.

For NSHD day in 2023 the Heritage Project linked a range of its activities that month to the day, publicising it throughout the month and bringing everything together online for the 30th September. You can read more about that HERE.

In 2024, NSHD coincided with the last day of the Heritage Project so this was used as an opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the project through the project’s Facebook page and website, linking in with the national reach of Sporting Heritage.

The Sheffield Eagles have had 9 different logos in their relatively short lifetime. There has not been a comprehensive record of these logos therefore a graphic designer was commissioned to recreate them electronically for future use. You can see them all HERE.

In 40 years it is estimated that the Sheffield Eagles have played in 98 shirts – home, away or special kits. Before the Heritage Project there was not a definitive record of which shirts were used in which season. The information was in old books, press cuttings, programmes, historic photographs or people’s memories. As a starting point a document was produced with images of the shirts for the correct seasons where they were known. This was then used as the basis for assembling actual shirts from the Club’s collection, the Club’s volunteer kit manager and fans. These were then photographed (front, back and both sides) by Jake Borrill, part of the Club’s media team, in a consistent format. The photographs have all been correctly titled and catalogued for future reference. The Heritage Officer then edited the photos together and uploaded them to the Project's website to ensure the shirt collection is accessible to all. There are now photos of 92 of the 98 shirts thought to be in existence. You can see all the shirts HERE.

The focus on historic shirts had an impact in the lifetime of the Project. One was the modern recreation of the first ever shirt for the 40th anniversary celebrations, being worn during the 2024 Heritage Game. The most significant was the Club reproducing its 1996 away kit. When the Full Monty film was released in 1997 the Sheffield Eagles 1996 away shirt became known amongst fans as the Full Monty shirt because Mark Addy’s character Dave was seen wearing it in several scenes. Linked to the follow up Disney+ TV series launched in 2023 and due to the affection the fans have for the 1996 shirt the Club decided to produce limited edition replicas of the shirt for sale. It is a sign of how special the shirt is to fans of the Club that the first set of replicas sold out so quickly with more having to be ordered. Inspired by the popularity of the replica shirt the Club decided to theme their last game of the regular season on 24th September 2023 as the Full Monty game, with the team playing in the replica shirts. Unbeknownst to fans Mark Addy had seen that the Club had reissued the shirt he had worn in the film and placed an order. Becky Higgins, Customer Experience Manager at the Club got in touch with Mark and invited him to be the guest of honour at the game. He was presented with his shirt and a framed version signed by all the players. He also welcomed the players to the pitch in the Full Monty style and presented the match ball to the referee. You can read more about the “Full Monty Shirt” HERE.

The Project worked with Literacy Kicks and the Sheffield Eagles during September 2023 to deliver literacy workshops and tag rugby coaching sessions to primary schools across Sheffield. Literacy Kicks is a schools programme that encourages children in reading and writing by taking them inside the exciting world of sports journalism, developing their literacy through sports reporting. It was set up by rugby league journalist Gareth Walker. Gareth developed a specific programme for the Project using the 1998 Challenge Cup win as inspiration for the young people to produce a piece of writing.

At most of the workshops there was someone there linked to 1998 to share their memories with the children and talk about life in rugby league. We were grateful to Mark Aston, Keith Senior and Cory Aston for spending time with the schools talking about their memories and experiences. Linked to this, we brought together all aspects of the work of the Eagles Foundation by also offering a tag rugby league coaching session for the class on the same day. Thanks to the funding from the Heritage Fund, we were able to offer these workshops free of charge, therefore throughout September we worked with nine primary schools to deliver 21 literacy workshops and 21 coaching sessions involving over 650 schoolchildren. As a model of working this proved very successful and is something the Foundation and Club are keen to deliver again in the future. The success of the project was recognised in the 2024 Sporting Heritage Awards where the Heritage Project and Literacy Kicks were the winners of the Celebrating Sporting Heritage in Schools Award. You can read more about the project HERE.

The project worked with an education specialist, Meghan Tipping of Rooted in Talk, to create a 24 page booklet aimed at 6-14 year olds. These are being given away free at Sheffield Eagles games and through the work of the Eagles Foundation. The booklets are a chance for younger fans to learn more about the history of the Eagles and includes a mix of articles, crosswords, wordsearches and guides to the game as well as a chance for them to write their own match reports, create their own badges, design a new stadium, write their own history of the Club and collect autographs. Copies can also be downloaded HERE.

As a result of the Heritage Project there is now a much greater discussion about the history of the Club, the sharing of people’s memories and the preservation of items of heritage value.

It has all added to a sense a greater understanding amongst fans, players, the Club and the Foundation of the importance of the heritage of the Sheffield Eagles and how this heritage can, and should, be shared with others. Heritage now seems a more integral part of the Club, whether through the regular use of player’s heritage numbers, through the creation of replica shirts, the use of historic footage to promote future games or the focus on the Heritage Game each season. Items such as photos, programmes, shirts, scrapbooks or DVDs are now better stored and catalogued, with their value appreciated, meaning they are no longer at risk. There is seen to be a value in heritage both commercially and as a way of engaging with fans - both new and old. The Heritage Project has created the opportunity for existing fans to share their memories and new fans to learn about the rich history of the Club. Heritage is now an integral part of the work of the Eagles Foundation and the Club itself, with this set to continue into the future.

The project has achieved the following:

WEBSITE

• 1 Website developed
• 4,100 Documents added to website
• 46 Stories added to the website 
• 3,181 Visits to the website
• 24,716 Number of Page views

BRANDING, MARKETING AND PROMOTION

• 13 Pop up stands
• 5 Individual postcards produced 
• 3 Selfie frames
• 2 years of player sponsorship
• 44 Articles in Sheffield Eagles programme
• 4 Articles produced for other publications
• 250 Challenge Cup badges produced
• 250 40th Anniversary badges produced
• 29 Newsletters sent out
• 148 Newsletter subscribers
• 9 Historic logos recreated
• 400 packs of 40 from 40 Years card games produced

EXHIBITION AND ARCHIVING

• 969 Programmes scanned and uploaded to website 
• 421 Matches and videos digitised
• 18,204 Photographs scanned and digitised
• 92 Shirts photographed and recorded 
• 10 Scrapbooks scanned
• 1,200 Press Cuttings Scanned
• 130 Documents scanned

SCHOOLS, SCHOOLS LEARNING AND OUTREACH

• 9 schools engaged with Literacy Kicks 
• 609 children engaged with Literacy Kicks
• 42 Literacy Kicks and schools coaching workshops 
• 1 Children's activity booklet
• 65 Attending children's workshop Weston Park Museum
• 1 Sporting Heritage Award

VOLUNTEER TRAINING 

• 1 Volunteer training event
• 8 Volunteers trained - formally
• 6 Volunteers trained - informally
• 7 Volunteers working on 40th anniversary booklet
• 704 Volunteer Hours

ORAL HISTORY AND EVENT

• 18 Events
• 8 Hall of Fame new inductees
• 5 Roll of Honour new inductees
• 584 Heritage Certificates produced
• 1 40th anniversary celebration booklet
• 1 Challenge Cup celebration booklet
• 14 Oral History Recordings