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More stories will be added on a weekly basis, so keep coming back to see what's new. Very soon the search function will be added allowing you to easily search the entire site for stories, players, games or any other reference.

Learn more about Sheffield Eagles through the stories we've researched and focused on. If you'd like to share your memories and stories with the project then get in touch. 



On the 30th September of every year Sporting Heritage organise National Sporting Heritage Day (#NSHD) and the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project was delighted to take part. You can find more details of what we organised here.

National Sporting Heritage Day Sporting Heritage celebrates the UK’s sporting heritage supporting the collection, preservation, access, and research of sporting heritage in the UK and wider. As part of this on the 30th September of every year they organise National Sporting Heritage Date (#NSHD) and the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project are delighted to be taking part.
Rather than organising something specific for the 30th September the Heritage Project had a series of events and activities throughout September. September is important to the Club as they played their first ever game on 2nd September 1984. Therefore next year marks the 40th anniversary of the Sheffield Eagles, with events and activities planned throughout the year to mark this special season.
We’ve brought together details of all the #NHSD related activities we’ve been involved in, just click on the links below to find more information.

SHEFFIELD EAGLES HERITAGE GAME The Heritage Project worked with the Club to make the home game on 3rd September the first ever Sheffield Eagles Heritage Game - the game closest to the anniversary of the first ever Sheffield Eagles game on 2nd September 1984. In the future the home game closest to the 2nd September will become Heritage Game that year.
To read more click ,HERE,.

PAST PLAYERS ASSOCIATION The Sheffield Eagles Past Players Association was launched to coincide with the 2023 Heritage Game. You can find more details of the Association by clicking ,HERE,. 

Hall of Fame and Roll of Honour As part of the Sheffield Eagles 2023 End of Season Presentation on 29th September new inductees to the Sheffield Eagles Hall of Fame and Roll of Honour were announced. You can find more details of membership of both by clicking ,HERE,. Details of the new inductees will be included after they have been announced.

The Story of Rugby League in Sheffield After some research by the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project it has become clear that there were attempts to establish Rugby League in Sheffield before the Sheffield Eagles in 1984. In fact there were attempts even before it was known as Rugby League. Find out more ,HERE,. 

How the Sheffield Eagles Started You can read more about how the Sheffield Eagles started by clicking ,HERE,.
You can watch full footage of the first ever Sheffield Eagles game in 1984 ,HERE,. 
You can watch a video of the first 10 years of the Sheffield Eagles ,HERE,.

Sheffield Eagles - Literacy Kicks The Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project working with the Literacy Kicks project delivered 21 literacy workshops at 9 schools in Sheffield throughout September. The workshops used the Sheffield Eagles historic 1998 Challenge Cup win as the starting point for children to write their own newspaper articles. You can find out more ,HERE,.

Sheffield Eagles Walking Rugby Team The recently launched Sheffield Eagles Walking Rugby Team played their first competitive games since they were formed in June as part of a tournament in Wath. You can read more ,HERE,.

The Full Monty Game As a result of Mark Addy's character Dave in the Full Monty film wearing the Sheffield Eagles 1996 away kit it has become known as the "Full Monty" shirt. The last game of the regular season on 24th September 2023 was designated the Full Monty game. Read more about it ,HERE,.

Sporting Heritage Sporting Heritage is a Community Interest Company dedicated to supporting the protection, understanding and celebration of the nation’s sporting heritage. They are based in Leeds and deliver work across the UK. They support sports clubs, governing bodies, schools, community groups, cultural organisations, diverse representatives, universities, and individuals across the UK, working with them to:
Understand the importance of sporting heritage.
Develop knowledge and interest in how to collect, preserve, display and provide access to sporting heritage.
Demonstrate the role of sporting heritage across a range of other agendas such as mental health and education.
Sporting Heritage was established in 2012 because despite the rich sporting heritage of the UK the protection, preservation and celebration of it is often overlook. Therefore Sporting Heritage aims to help keep sporting stories alive across the four nations, in communities, schools, sports groups and museums. This can help them be key drivers of wellbeing; education; community engagement; heritage and sport participation; and tourism objectives.
You can find more about Sporting Heritage ,HERE,. 


Author Richard King

Details of all the activities the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project organised linked to National Sporting Heritage Day 2023.

National Sporting Heritage Day 2023



Long term Sheffield Eagles fan Ian Swain has been collecting programmes and press cuttings about the Club since the 1994-95 season and he contacted the Heritage Project to discuss sharing this collection.

Programme Collection Ian has spent many hours digitising his collection of programmes, press cuttings and photos, providing the Heritage Project with a memory stick of over 12gb, containing nearly 9,000 files in total! This is an amazing digital collection that we’re delighted to be able to share via the Heritage Project website. We’ve worked with two students to upload all the programmes so that Ian’s entire collection of 563 programmes from the last 28 years is now available to everyone. It’s fascinating to look back to see how the programmes have changed over time, the different players and the progress of the team. It’s also a trip down memory lane to see the various adverts from Sheffield businesses and shops.

WHERE TO FIND THE PROGRAMMES If you want to investigate the collection then click the "Collections" button at the top of this page then search for programmes based on season or team. We’ll continue to digitise the rest of the programmes we have from before 1995 over the next year and add the programmes on from this season in September. We’ll select some of the press cuttings Ian has given us to add to the website but the rest will form a digital archive that will be part of the legacy of the Heritage Project.

ANY OTHER PROGRAMMES? If you have any programmes that we've not uploaded to the site then get in touch and we'll see if we can add them.

Search the collection of Sheffield Eagles programmes donated by Ian Swain

Sheffield Eagles Programmes



The webinar focused on how we collect the stories and experiences that are vital to sporting heritage. 

Webinar We were delighted to be invited to be part of the panel for Sporing Heritage's webinar - "Sharing Stories through collecting". The webinar looked at how do we identify stories and how do we approach collecting them. It considered How do these experiences equate to the physical objects in our collections and how do we share both with our communities? 
Also on the panel were the Red Archive (Liverpool FC), National Football Museum and St Fagans National Museum of History. We were able to share a little of the history of the Sheffield Eagles, how the Heritage Project is collecting stories, what we've achieved to date and what we have planned for the rest of the project. It was a great chance to raise the profile of both the Project and the Sheffield Eagles.
If you'd like to see the presentation then a pdf version is provided below.
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Author Richard King

The Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project was invited by Sporting Heritage to take part in a webinar on 25th July 2023.

Sharing Stories Through Collecting



2nd September 1984 is a milestone in the history of the Sheffield Eagles. It was when, after a number of years of planning, the Sheffield Eagles played their first ever game, beating Rochdale Hornets 29-10 at Owlerton Stadium. The Heritage Project and the Club are marking the anniversary this year by designating the home game on 3rd September as the first annual Sheffield Eagles heritage game. This will then be repeated each year for the home game that is closest to the 2nd September.

The Countdown begins The first heritage game also marks the countdown to the 40th anniversary of the Sheffield Eagles on 2nd September 2024. Over the next year there will be a range of events, activities and other ways of marking the 40 years of achievements. There are more stories to be told, with the highs and lows of those four decades. The Heritage Project and Club will share more details over the next few months.

Retro Shirts For fans we’d like you to wear your retro shirt on that day – whether it’s the oldest shirt you have or your favourite shirt from the last 39 years. We look forward to everyone being part of the first heritage game.

Author Richard King

The game on 3rd September against London Broncos has been designated the first Sheffield Eagles Heritage Game, the start of celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Club on 2nd September 2024.

Sheffield Eagles 40th Anniversary on the Horizon



The film holds a special place for the Sheffield Eagles as the original film features Mark Addy's character Dave in a number of scenes wearing the shirt. 

Before the Full Monty  The first claim to fame for the "Full Monty" shirt is having featured in the first ever game of the new era of summer rugby – the Super League in 1996. The Eagles first round game of the new Super League was away to Paris St Germain and because it was on the Friday night (29th March) it was the first game in Super League and broadcast on Sky Sports. The Eagles lost the game 30-24 in front of a crowd 17,873 but they were part of history.
The Eagles shirt design had broken with the tradition of the red and gold vee for the 1993-94 season with the bold eagle design – that season red and gold for home, purple and gold for away. The following season saw a variation on the eagle design with red and gold for home and green and black for away. The eagle design was adapted again for the 1995 – 96 before its final use in the 1996 – red and gold for home, blue and white for away.
[Image: Jean-Marc Garcia, Paris St Germain v Sheffield Eagles 29th March 1996]
[Image: Paris St Germain v Sheffield Eagles 29th March 1996]
[Image: Dean Lawford, Paris St Germain v Sheffield Eagles 29th March 1996]
[Image: Lynton Stott, Paris St Germain v Sheffield Eagles 29th March 1996]
[Image: Mick Cook, Dale Laughton, Pall Carr, Danny McAllister and Jean-Marc Garcia]

The Original Shirt 
[Image: 1996 "Full Monty" Away Shirt - Front]
[Image: 1996 "Full Monty" Away Shirt - Back]

Weston Park Museum Amongst the fans the shirt is known as the Full Monty shirt and during the 1997 season the Full Monty connection was used by the Club to promote games. We've recently celebrated the significance of the shirt as part of the display case at Weston Park Museum we've produced with Sheffield Museums. The shirt is one of a number of items to capture the 40 year history of the Sheffield Eagles and you can visit it until the middle of 2024.
[Image: Display Case, Weston Park Museum]

Author Richard King

14th June 2023 saw the launch of the Full Monty TV series on Disney+, the follow up to the 1997 film

Sheffield Eagles Full Monty Connection



Every player in the 1998 Eagles squad played their part in some way in the Challenge Cup victory. 

1998 Squad 
[Quote: "That squad from 1998 are a special group, who will always have a connection, no matter how long the gap is between seeing each other. When we come together there is a special bond, a togetherness and a brotherhood. Every one of those players from the squad, whether they played in any of the Challenge Cup games or not, helped make 1998 the year of the Eagles. " Author: Paul Broadbent]



1 
[Player 192, Waisale Sovatabua]

2 
[Player 198, Nick Pinkney]

3 
[Player 197, Whetu Taewa]

4 
[Player 174, Keith Senior]

5 
[Player 171, Bright Sodje]

6 
[Player 153, Matt Crowther]

7 
[Player 063, Mark Aston]

8 
[Player 087, Paul Broadbent]

9 
[Player 180, Johnny Lawless]

10 
[Player 138, Dale Laughton]

11 
[Player 150, Paul Carr]

12 
[Player 207, Darren Shaw]

13 
[Player 205, Marcus Vassilakopoulos]

14 
[Player 206, Gareth Stephens]

15 
[Player 156, Darren Turner]

16 
[Player 211, Neil Law]

17 
[Player 209, Michael Jackson]

18 
[Player 201, Wayne Flynn]

19 
[Player 195, Rod Doyle]

21 
[Player 200, Willie Morganson]

22 
[Player 208, Dave Watson]

23 
[Player 204, Ricky Wright]

24 
[Player 199, Martin Wood]

25 
[Player 155, Lynton Stott]

26 
[Player 212, Dale Cardoza]

27 
[Player 210, Steve Molloy]

29 
[Player 213, Oliver Wilkes]

Details of all the players from the 1998 squad - click through to see each of their playing records.