When the FA Cup Came Home

There are just 66 days until the opening of the exhibition When the FA Cup Came Home.
This will be the undoubted highlight of our celebrations marking one hundred years since Bradford City won the FA Cup. You’ve seen the film, read the book and now it will not be long before you can visit the exhibition. On display will be several FA Cup winners’ medals, shirts from the era as well as a host of other memorabilia never seen before.
In preparation for the exhibition several exhibits, including the FA Cup Final ball, have been moved from the bantamspast museum at Valley Parade to Bradford Industrial Museum. As a result it will remain in a state of flux until the end of the season. However, 90% of our items remain on display and we hope that our regular visitors will bear with us until next season when the entire bantamspast museum will receive a much needed facelift.
The exhibition When the FA Cup Came Home is being hosted by our good friends at Bradford Industrial Museum in Eccleshill. The scale and cost of staging the exhibition meant that we could not hold it at bantamspast. However, many of the displays will move to Valley Parade in time for the 2011/12 season.

When the FA Cup Came Home
Saturday 19 March 2011 to Sunday 12 June 2011
Admission free
Bradford Industrial Museum

Albert Shepherd and What Might Have Been

In the summer of 1914 Bradford City spent heavily on a forward line to compliment a defence that was widely recognised as being the best in the Football League. It should have been the start of a new exciting era. However, the outbreak of the Great War ruined any chance of the club firmly establishing itself among the elite of the game. Had the war not come City would have probably added to their FA Cup triumph of 1911 and pushed for the league title that had eluded them on several occasions.

One of the forwards signed was Albert Shepherd from Newcastle United. By December 1914 he was beginning to form a formidable partnership with Oscar Fox. In that month Shepherd scored seven times in four games. These goals included a hat-trick against West Brom on 19 December. Sadly, only 5,300 saw the game; the war was frustrating City’s well-laid plans.

The 1914/15 season was Albert Shepherd’s only campaign for the Bantams. He scored 12 goals in just 26 appearances. He retired during the Great War. One can only wonder as to what might have been.

Happy New Year!