Celebrating 25 years of the reborn Sheffield Eagles
28th December 2024 is a significant date in the history of the Sheffield Eagles, it marks the 25th anniversary of the first game of the second phase of the Club
As the 1999 Super League Season came to an end Sheffield Eagles fans were left without a club to follow. The merger with the Huddersfield Giants had gone ahead but thanks to the efforts of a dedicated group, a new Sheffield Eagles was created ready for the start of the 2000 season.
Background
In his summary of the 2000 season Ian Swain wrote in more detail about the merger of the Sheffield Eagles with the Huddersfield Giants, including some of the background, the reaction, the challenges of creating a new team in less than 70 day and the struggles of that first season. You can read that HERE.
The first game
The first phase of the Sheffield Eagles saw them play for 16 seasons, 2025 will see them start their 26th season in the second incarnation. As could be expected it took a long time for the Club to rebuild, with many setbacks and challenges along the way. That first game set the scene though and gave the 500 fans who travelled to Chorley some hope for the future. That first game on 28th December 1999 against Lancashire Lynx saw a 33-20 victory for the Eagles. This despite there only being 22 days between having the Club's application to the Rugby League Council approved and that first game.
You can read the programme from that first game here:
You can watch full footage of that first game here:
For that first game the Eagles only had a temporary red and gold strip at that point which clashed with their opponents home kit. Therefore the Eagles played in the Lancashire Lynx blue away kit.
This was the short term home kit - you can see why it clashed with Lancashire's strip.
This was before the home and away kits for the rest of the season arrived.
Further information
As part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Club in 2024 the Heritage Project brought together key people from the various eras of the Club to share their memories. Below you can watch some of those involved in the rebuilding the Sheffield Eagles talk about what was involved and the challenges along the way.
During 2024 the Heritage Project, worked with fans, selecting one player from each season to represent the 40th years of the Club. The first captain (try scorer) of the new team Jon Bruce was selected for that first season. You can read more HERE along with an interview carried out with Jon by Dan Fowler HERE.