In their early years, the Bantams (Bradford's nickname) played in division one. This lasted from 1908 to 1922. Many decades later, the club would find itself in the third and fourth division. This was a long way from the top two leagues.
1985 saw the Bantams return to the second tier. In 1988, they almost returned to division one. However; they lost out after losing their last two games.
In their place, Millwall, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough would get promoted. Two years later, Bradford were relegated.
Geoffrey Richmond then became the chairman of the club in 1994. He would be influential to the fortunes of Bradford City.
It would take six years for Bradford to return to the second tier and they were almost relegated in their first season back. Bradford won their last two games of the season against Charlton Athletic and QPR.
Bradford's manager, surprisingly at that time, was Chris Kamara and one of their main players was Chris Waddle.
The next season, Chris Kamara left the club and was replaced by Paul Jewell in the middle of the 1997-98 season. Jewell had played for Bradford and was there for 10 years; now, he was ready to take on the next level.
That season, Bradford finished 13th, mid table. Whilst an improvement from last year, Richmond wanted to continue to strengthen the club.
Lee Mills was signed from Port Vale and Isaiah Rankin was signed from Arsenal. Stuart McCall was also signed from Rangers on a free transfer.
Things were not looking good for Bradford at first. They had only won one match in their first seven games. It was after the slump when things started to improve. From the 12th September to the 14th November, Bradford had only lost one game out of 12 games; now they were 7th in the table.
While they lost to Leeds United in the League Cup and Newcastle United in the FA Cup, it was perfect for the Bantams as they would gain experiences from Premier League to continue their rise through the second division.
On the final day of the season, things were looking close. Bradford had to win against Wolves to reach the promised land, the Premier League. If they lost, Ipswich Town would go up.
The final score, 3-2 to Bradford. They did it. They were finally back in the top league of English Football. After 77 years, Bradford were back. But, how would they cope?
Paul Jewell would sign new players to strengthen the squad. This included Lee Sharp, David Wetherall and Gunnar Halle of local rivals Leeds United. Wetherall would be the most expensive signing with a fee of £1.4 million. Dean Saunders was another important signing, it would be his last club he would play for in his footballing career.
The Bantams won their first Premier League match, a 1-0 away win against Middlesbrough. It would take until the 23rd October 1999 for Bradford to win their first home match. A 3-1 win against Leicester City, who would win the league cup that season.
So far, Bradford were 17th in the league. 17th wasn't that bad of a position as Paul Jewell's side were eyeing survival.
In tournaments, Bradford under-performed. In the league cup, they were eliminated by second division Barnsley. The FA Cup was another let down as they lost to Gillingham away 3-1 in the 4th round.
At this time, the club were now in the relegation zone. Not even back-to-back wins against Watford and even Arsenal could take them out of the league.
From February to April, the club had not won a match and were conceding too many goals. Fortunately, clubs like Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday were in freefall; maybe there was hope after all.
Bradford drew against Derby 4-4, a Dean Windass hat-trick would be the only hat-trick that season. After two wins against Sunderland and Wimbledon, the Bantams finally got out of the drop.
14th May 2000. Bradford are at home against the illustrious Liverpool. The away team had to win to qualify for the Champions League.For Bradford, they had to win or either draw this match
12 minutes in Wetherall headed the ball into the goal. 1-0 to Bradford. Now all that they had to do was to not let Liverpool score. On the other side, Wimbledon were losing to Southampton 2-0. It now seemed that survival was almost complete.
After 90 minutes, the whistle was blown for full time. Bradford City had beaten Liverpool and Wimbledon lost their match. It was over, Paul Jewell's Bradford were playing Premier League football for another season. Liverpool had to settle for the UEFA Cup.
A sea of fans invaded the pitch to celebrate the moment.
As another surprise, Bradford had qualified for a European competition called the Intertoto Cup; the chairman applied the team to play for the tournament after an Italian football club dropped out.
To gear up, the stadium was improved with two stands being revamped during the 2000 - 01 season.
However, Paul Jewell left and Chris Hutchings took over as manager. This season would turn out to be difficult for the Bantams.
In the Intertoto cup, Bradford fared well by beating Lithuanian club FK Atlantas and Dutch club RKC Waalwijk. In the semi finals, they would be eliminated by the powerful Russian club Zenit St Petersburg.
Now it was time to focus on the Premier League.
Despite a huge home win against Chelsea in the second game of the season, Bradford would not win a home match for four months and were bottom of the league. Not even new signings Benito Carbone and Stan Collymoore could improve the team.
The Bantams crashed out of the FA Cup against Middlesbrough and they narrowly lost to Newcastle United away 4-3 in the League Cup.
In the Premier League, Bradford would only win 5 games out of 38. The club had changed manager in the middle of the season as Jim Jeffries took over the club. But even a change of manager couldn't save them. Bradford were relegated from the Premier League.
After two years, the dream was over. Bradford were in the second tier again.
In 2002, Geoffrey Richmond put the club into Administration and the club's free fall would continue. Two years later, they were relegated to the third division; and in 2007, Bradford were in the basement division of the football league.
2017 saw the club almost return to the second tier, now known as the Championship, but they would to Millwall 1-0.
As of 2019, Bradford have been playing in League Two (fourth division).
While the Bantams may not be as huge as they have been before, many fans look back at their two year stint in the Premier League with joy and pride.
Players such as Windass, Wetherall, Sharpe and many more graced the shirts and entertained a city of 540,000 people.
Who knows when the Bantams will return to the top level of English football?
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