I HAD an interesting discussion recently with Mike Ford, the managing director of Oldham RLFC, who was a recent guest of me and my colleague Jake Kearnan on the League Express Podcast, which I thoroughly recommend watching on YouTube or listening to on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any other podcast platform.
Mike has been in charge of Oldham now for just over a year and on the podcast we talk to him about the progress the club has made in that time.
They currently sit at the top of the table alongside Keighley Cougars and they look very well placed to gain promotion to the Championship. With their supporters growing in number, I’m sure they will be a great asset to that competition if they succeed in getting there.
As Mike pointed out, the key to their success has been the move back to Boundary Park, the 13,000-capacity stadium that is owned by Oldham Athletic FC. There are very few stadiums anywhere in rugby league that are better than that.
Mike also emphasises the importance of giving a pathway to the town’s junior talent, giving more youngsters the chance to follow in the footsteps of great stars who came out of Oldham such as Kevin Sinfield, Paul Sculthorpe, Barrie McDermott, Terry Flanagan, Iestyn Harris, Marc Sneyd and Mike himself. And, as we see with Zach Eckersley, who played and scored for Wigan in the Challenge Cup Final, the conveyor belt of talent from Oldham is continuing.
There are some great junior clubs in Oldham and Mike is very aware that creating a pathway from those clubs to the professional club sitting at the top of the pyramid is the way to go.
All of that is covered in the podcast.
But one part of the club that we didn’t cover was its name, which officially is Oldham RLFC 1876 Ltd. That name was adopted in October last year and incorporates the year in which the club was founded.
When Super League first launched, Oldham spent a couple of years being known as ‘Oldham Bears’, but their relegation from Super League in 1997 and the club’s subsequent liquidation and then rebirth under Chris Hamilton saw the end of that moniker.
Unofficially Oldham are usually referred to as ‘The Roughyeds’, which I believe is a name that derives from the lining on the felt hats that used to be made in the town.
But that moniker has never been incorporated into the official name of the club.
We’ve found at some other clubs, such as Castleford and Salford, that the informal name was incorporated into the club name, in their cases the Tigers and Red Devils respectively.
That hasn’t happened at Oldham.
But should it?
Should Oldham adopt ‘The Roughyeds’ as an official title, or should they adopt another name or stay completely as they are.
The problem is that their current ‘official’ title is actually the name of the company that runs the club. Most fans simply refer to the club as Oldham or the Roughyeds.
And that raises the interesting question of whether a club should choose a moniker that is unique, such as the Roughyeds or the Rabbitohs (South Sydney), or one that is used much more widely, such as Lions, Tigers or Dolphins.
I actually believe that if a club is going to adopt a moniker, it should ideally be one that is unique, that describes something about the club and has a link to the town that the club represents.
In that case, ‘Roughyeds’ would be ideal. I can’t imagine that moniker turning up anywhere else, so that Oldham RLFC would have complete ownership of it. And a unique moniker gives plenty of scope for designing logos and mascots, advertising campaigns and appeals to the pride of their supporters.
For the same reason, I always lamented the fact that Halifax did away with the ‘Blue Sox’ moniker, which to me was ideal, because it related to the club colours and it gave a nod to the textile history of the town.
If you want to know how to develop a unique moniker, let me refer you to the Hokies, which is the moniker of the Virginia Tech College Football team in the United States.
Virginia Tech’s mascot is the HokieBird (above), which is purely made up, and its football team has one of the most dramatic entries to the football field in the whole of world sport. You should try to catch it on YouTube.
How far Oldham could rise is of course unknowable at this stage. But one day I would like to see the club back in Super League.
And if they get there, I hope they will be there as The Roughyeds.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 498 (July 2024)
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