Sport in Leeds
Leeds has a strong sporting heritage, with the Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Leeds Rhinos (the rugby league team) and Leeds Tykes (the Rugby Union team) playing at Headingley Stadium, and Leeds United F.C. playing at Elland Road.
Teams based in Leeds
In the early 20th Century Leeds was known as a rugby town. The first football team to bear the name of the city were called Leeds City. However this team was disqualified from the league for financial breaches. In 1919 Leeds United were formed. Unlike many northern cities such as Manchester and Sheffield, Leeds only has just one football team, Leeds is in fact the town or city with the largest population to have just one team in the football league. Leeds United are currently members of the Football League Championship (second highest level of the English league system), where they have been since 2004 when a financial crisis and loss of key players cost them their Premiership status and almost put them out of business. Their greatest successes came in the late 1960s and 1970s, when they were league champions twice as well as winning the League Cup, F.A Cup and European Fairs Cup. They also won the league title in 1992, when Howard Wilkinson was manager, the teams last major trophy.
Founded as Leeds St. Johns in 1895 the club is now known as the Leeds Rhinos have a long history. In recent years the team has comepted in several major finals. Under coach Graham Murray they competed in the first Super League grand final in 1998 but were defeated by Wigan Warriors. A year later Leeds won the Challenge Cup, defeating London Broncos at Wembley in the last final held at Wembley stadium before its re-building. After several years without a trophy the appointment of Tony Smith of coach saw Leeds top the league at the end of the season and went on to be crowned Super League champions on 16 October, 2004 after defeating arch rivals Bradford Bulls 16-8 at Old Trafford. In 2005 the Rhinos reached the final of both the Challenge Cup and the Super League but lost both games to Hull FC and Bradford Bulls respectivly.
Leeds Tykes were founded in 1991 after the merger of Roundhay and Headingley and played their first match on 1st September 1992 against Hull Ionians. The club won their first ever trophy in 2005 with battling performance to defeat huge favourites Bath in the PowerGen Cup final. However the teams fortunes declined and in 2006 they were relegated from the Zurich Premiership.
Leeds City AC is amongst the biggest and most successful athletics clubs in the North of England and has had the most successful men's harriers section in the country in the 21st century. Since the turn of the millennium the team has never been out of the top 4 in the National Cross Country Championships, winning in 2003 and 2006. In 2006 the team achieved the 'Grand Slam' of wins - Yorkshire, North of England and English National Champions.
Other Sport in Leeds
Leeds has a wealth of sports facilities including the 40,000 capacity Elland Road football stadium, a host stadium during the 1996 European Football Championship, 22,000 capacity Carnegie Headingley Stadium, world famous for both Cricket and rugby league, Leeds International Pool (50m), South Leeds Stadiumused for athletics, bowls, football and tennis. Other facilities include the Leeds Wall (climbing), Xscape (real snow indoor ski and snowboard slope with ice climbing wall) and Yeadon Tarn, sailing centre.
