As the current BAFA season heads into the closing weeks of playoff football, the Nottingham Caesars, having finished their Premiership North campaign in third place, guaranteed themselves a place at the top tier for another campaign.

Meanwhile the Nottingham Sport takes an overdue look back at the beginnings of the sport in the East Midlands, and the presence of ‘the Dirty Rats,’ the Nottingham Hoods.

In the mid-1980s, and with American Football taking hold thanks to televised coverage, the British nation was finding itself buoyed by images on Channel Four, with the East Midlands County of Nottinghamshire having not one, but two sides in which to call their own – the Nottingham Hoods, and the Mansfield Express.

Both the Hoods, and the Express, sprang to life around 1984 (first ever Hoods team photo, above, via Mark Bell), ahead of the UK’s inaugural season the following year, and for those Hoods, wonderfully nicknamed ‘the Dirty Rats,’ it would see a decade of helmet-bashing fun which the likes of former stars, linebacker Dave Tidswell and tight end Kevan Matthews, looked back on with some fondness.

Training would be seen to take place at Bramcote Park, on a Sunday, ahead of their first ‘friendly’ games in Glasgow, and Newcastle, with the Hoods winning their first-ever outing when north o’ the border.

The Nottingham Recorder, on 8 November 1984, reported the trip to Scotland, thus;

HOODS’ WINNING DEBUT IN GLASGOW

The Nottingham Hoods American Football Club won their first competitive game on Saturday (3 November).

The team, nicknamed the Dirty Rats, beat Glasgow Lions 19-12 under floodlights on the astro turf pitch at Helenvale Park, Glasgow.

“It was a super game in spite of torrential rain,” said the Hoods’ general secretary, Andy Smith, who was in the team. “The American commentator said it was the best debut performance he had seen in Britain.”

The Hoods and Lions will be playing in the American Football UK Summer League next April, but in different sections.

Speaking of those early beginnings, Tidswell and Matthews regaled beautifully, and passionately, of a time now four decades in the rearview mirror.

“We wanted it to be for the whole of Nottingham,” claimed Tidswell, who has also published a book on their history.

“When we started it was all just British guys (1984-85), then, if team had a sponsor, finances, you could have three, American imports (1986).

“We ended up with a roster of 75+ guys, and we’d only really catered for thirty-odd, whilst other guys would be seen to form other clubs in the area, including Mansfield Express.

“At the time a lot of the guys who turned out for the Express were also working down the pits as well.”

For Matthews meanwhile, a former sports shop manager during the Hoods’ beginnings, recalls how he first heard of them, adding; “I was actually managing a shop in Long Eaton when I was asked to put a poster in the shop window.

“That was advertising for Hoods players, so I went along; we were just a bunch of ragtag lads, learning the game from scratch.

“Some of the lads had played rugby, and we scrimmaged over at Bramcote Park – the American students that were around then, they thought were crazy.”

As for the first-ever match to be played in East Midlands territory, the Hoods welcomed Oxford Bulldogs to the Harvey Hadden Stadium in late March 1985, with the Bulldogs coming away with the win, but it failed to dampen any spirits.

Afterwards, Hoods’ American coach, Paul Van Hoof, himself nicknamed ‘the Wisconsin Wonder,’ told the Nottingham Evening Post that; “The most important part is the game, so I can’t really say today has been a success.

“But we will win our first league game. There is always tomorrow, even if it doesn’t seem like it today.”

Van Hoof also said that; “I still think this team is as good as any in the country when we play well.

“We made a few changes in the offensive line and we didn’t have enough time to work together.”

Recalling that first game, in Glasgow’s torrential rain, Matthews added; “I remember it being so cold that we needed to thaw out in the showers.

“But I really enjoyed my time playing for them, it was a great time with a great bunch of blokes.”

As for Tidswell, recalling the increase in the sports popularity is something he’s proud of, stating that; “We even played a couple of games at Meadow Lane, in the late eighties.

“We had a lot of respect, especially in the local press, gaining newspaper and television coverage.”

That debut, 1985 season, began with the Hoods hosting Kings Lynn Patriots; other sides the Hoods opposed were Birmingham Bulls, Milton Keynes Bucks, Northampton Stormbringers, Walsall Titans, and Warwickshire Bears

(NB – A more in-depth feature on the Hoods will also appear on The Touchdown NFL, via Peter Mann’s content HERE)

*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).

*Main image @BAFAOfficial the first ever team pic of Nottingham Hoods in 1984.