The history of rugby league is soon to be on the school curriculum thanks to a Huddersfield-based project.
Rugby league historians have devised a course on the history of the sport for pupils aged nine to 13.
And members of the Huddersfield Rugby League: A Lasting Legacy project hope it will inspire children who struggle to concentrate in their history lessons.
The course was launched at a celebration of the project at the University of Huddersfield this week, which included Giants chairman Ken Davy among the guest speakers.
The event also featured a short performance of World War One songs by Huddersfield Poperetta and memorabilia from the RFL archive which is kept at the university.
Huddersfield schools have been invited to adopt the course as part of their history syllabus and discs containing the course will be given to them.
The course covers how rugby came to Huddersfield and ‘the great schism’ of 1895 when at The George Hotel, northern clubs chose to form their own league and resign from the southern-centric Rugby Union.
It includes the development of the game, its star players – including Fartown legend Douglas Clarke – and the impact that world wars had on the sport.
The course includes supporters’ stories and finishes with revision games including inventing a board game and devising a match day programme.
And as well as history the course uses rugby league to address broader issues.
For example, Giants prop Eorl Crabtree teaches children about controlling anger in order to win a match.
The course is the latest project by the Lottery-funded Huddersfield Rugby League: A Lasting Legacy which was launched at the Tolson Museum in October 2013.
Other projects included an exhibition at the museum, a heritage trail around Holmfirth based on the life of league supremo Harold Wagstaff and a re-enactment of the 1895 great schism meeting at the George Hotel by Scholes Junior and Infant School.
Project leader Brian Heywood hopes the course will inspire pupils who find their history lessons boring.
Mr Heywood said: “Sport is a good way to motivate underachieving pupils.
“Mention the Factories Act of 1850 and they turn off, but mention that the act gave people their Saturday afternoons off work and allowed people to watch football and rugby. Then they become interested.”
For more about the project visit: www.huddersfieldrlheritage.co.uk .