History


St. Josephs are a well established club from Huddersfield who were formed nearly 50 years ago, from a Catholic Youth Club bearing the name of the local church. The founder members of that club were two of the most famous names in the amateur game: BARLA founder member Tom Keaveney and today's Vice-Chairman Billy Gill, along with the then Treasurer, Bernard Brown and Martin Kennedy who is still club president to this day.

Billy Gill who was, in 1953 still in his prime at Fartown with Huddersfield, was the coach as the club started life with an Under 19's side. Incidentally Billy's professional career was to come to an abrupt end 7 years later due to ligament damage and he was then able to give St. Josephs his full attention. They went from strength to strength with two open-age sides plus the Under 19's and Under 17's, which culminated with a Yorkshire Cup Final victory in 1973 over the now West Hull. That quartet of founder players were at the club for a total of 30 years together, which is a long time effort and a service to amateur rugby league.

However, after setting up a flourishing Junior Section the numbers at the club fell into a rapid decline as St. Josephs became a feeder team for such other clubs as Moldgreen.
In the last couple of seasons the club has started to build again. We have fielded 2 open age sides in the Pennine League (Divisions 1 and 6). The club has taken 2 big steps in the off season. We have merged with local junior club Deighton who have taken the name St Josephs and have move to the Fartown ground. The other development concerns the ground. With the Huddersfield Giants dropping plans to develop the ground the Saints have become the sole lease holders at Fartown and now control one of the famous grounds in rugby league.