In the summer of 1916, one of the city’s two weekly sports papers published a series of at least twenty articles under the heading ‘Rise of East Riding Soccer’. In the middle of a grim armed conflict where organised sport was severely reduced or completely suspended, it was a convenient time to reflect on the recent past and the progress made by the Association game. Some of the older events of the 1880s were already becoming distant, but not too remote to be recalled in accurate detail, and the author writing under the name “Tykeus” (perhaps a play on the name ‘Tityrus’ of the Athletics News?) is able to give a valuable account of the names, dates and places. Some of these are still familiar, but some clubs and their players did not make a sufficiently lasting impression to project through the decades. These articles therefore, with their wealth of detail and first- hand knowledge, provide a comprehensive picture of the football scene in Hull and surrounding district.

This is particularly important for understanding the local conditions and situations prevailing at the beginning of the last century. This applies to most of the 16 founders and original directors of Hull City, who were either players (for example Andrews, Levitt, Frost and the father of the Hay brothers) or ERFA officials at the time( such as Spring and Bielby), and would almost all have been known personally to each other, even if they were not playing or working alongside each other.

The articles supply hitherto unrecorded details of the rise and fall of local outfits, unobtainable from mere league tables and statistics. The ones of major relevance to establishment of Hull City in 1904 are reproduced in this section.