The roller-coaster ride that has been Sheffield Eagles’ history since the club was launched in 1984 is to be extensively chronicled, thanks to a £93,650 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The project – ‘Sheffield Eagles – the story of a Rugby League club battling against the odds’ – will involve six key areas:
1 Researching archives: Looking through information held by the club, at the Rugby Football League, within local archives and by supporters.
2 Digitisation of key documents and items: Documents, photographs, programmes, season-tickets, videos and memorabilia held by the club and supporters will be collected, catalogued and added to an online database.
3 Collecting stories: Volunteers will interview key people (officials, players, supporters and coaches) and record and film their stories). An audio history of the club will be produced, available through a series of podcasts, with a short film capturing the history of the club.
4 Training and support to volunteers.
5 Sharing the stories: This will include the creation of a website, pop-up exhibitions, learning packs, publications, events and public talks to share the stories and involve people.
6 Working with the local community: The project will extend beyond the club and the existing fanbase to the community within the immediate area around the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park and the wider city.
The Eagles Foundation is to advertise for an officer to lead the two-year project. Foundation chairman David Butler said: “Compared to their rivals, Sheffield Eagles are a very young Rugby League club.
“That gives an opportunity to preserve the heritage by engaging with people who were there in the beginning using modern technology that simply wasn’t available when longer-established clubs started playing the game back in 1895.”
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