Early years[edit]

The club was first formed as York Football Club in 1868 and played both association and rugby
football, for the first few seasons they had portable goal posts as they did not have their own ground
and would play wherever they could find a pitch. Eventually a permanent pitch was secured
on Knavesmire.
It took three years for the club to record their first victory, and that was in an association football
match against York Training College. Results picked up in the mid-1870s as the club attracted a
higher standard of player. In 1877, York were among several leading Yorkshire clubs who
inaugurated the Yorkshire Challenge Cup. In the first season 16 teams battled it out for the T'owd
Tin Pot, with York eventually losing out to Halifax in the final.
Financial problems in the early 1880s forced the club out of the Yorkshire Gentlemen's Ground in
Wigginton Road and in 1883 the club amalgamated with York Melbourne Club.
After playing on Poad's Fields for a short time, the York Lunatic Asylum leased the club a plot of land
at the end of the Clarence Street in 1885. The first game at the new site was between a York XV and
20 players from the city.
The club made great strides with the team of 1895, which won virtually all their home matches. Off
the field the club paid £85 for the Waterman's Mission Hut in Fishergate and converted it into their
first grandstand, incorporating dressing rooms.

Northern Union[edit]
Northern rugby teams broke away from the Rugby Football Union to form their own Northern
Union in 1895. York initially stayed with the Rugby Football Unionbut as more and more clubs began
to join the new order, it became a financial necessity to follow suit. The decision to join the Northern
Union was taken at a meeting at the Bar Hotel, Micklegate, on Monday, 25 April 1898 and five days
later they played their first Northern Union match against Hull Kingston Roverslosing 29–2.
The York club was first admitted to the Rugby Football League in 1901. In 1902/03 the Lancashire
and Yorkshire leagues were combined to form a second division. They defeated the touring All
Golds team in 1908.[2] York was one of the new teams to join the second division. After the First
World War, they became known as "the Dreadnoughts". They beat the visiting Australasian team of
the 1921–22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain 9–3.
York's best moment came in 1931 when they reached the Challenge Cup Final for the first time, only
to be beaten 22–8 by Halifax. York had finished as the top Yorkshire club in 1932–33 for the first
time and fourth in the league to qualify for the Championship play-offs but were beaten by Swinton.
In 1933, York beat Hull Kingston Rovers 10–4 in the Yorkshire Cup final held at Headingley. 10
February 1934, York's record attendance was set when 14,689 turned up to watch a Challenge Cup
match against Swinton, which ended in a 0–0 draw.
York again made the final of the Yorkshire Cup in 1935 but were beaten by Leeds 3–0 at Thrum
Hall, Halifax but were back the next year this time beating Wakefield Trinity 9–2 in a final held at
Headingley.
Bill Kirkbride became coach in 1980. York team lifted the Division Two title in 1980–81,
beating Hunslet 53–7 to guarantee themselves the title with two games to spare, finishing above big-
guns Wigan and big-spending Fulham.[3] Kirkbride left in 1982.
Financial problems forced the club to sell their training pitch for £200,000 in 1986. Three years later
faced with a large bill for safety work, the rest of the stadium was sold to a housing developer for
£705,000, less than half what the ground was worth. York's last match at Clarence Street produced
a 26–17 victory over Hunslet in front of a crowd of 2,904 spectators. When plans to ground share
with York City F.C. broke down, York moved to the Huntington Stadium (originally Ryedale Stadium)
two miles to the north of the city at Monk's Cross. As the stadium was financed by Ryedale District
Council the club became known as Ryedale-York.