Headline Honours
Men's Football
-
BUCS National Champions 2023
-
National Champions 1956
-
National Finalists 1976
-
BUCS Northern Premier Champions 2016
Women's Football
-
BUCS National Finalists 2024
-
BUCS National Champions 2018
-
BUCS National Champipns 2017
-
BUCS National Champions 2015
Women's Futsal
-
BUCS National Champions 2024
-
BUCS National Champions 2023
-
BUCS National Champions 2022
-
BUCS National Champions 2013
-
BUCS National Champions 2012
-
BUCS National Champions 2011
The History of DUAFC
This is the history of DUAFC as we know it. We would greatly appreciate any alumni members who can fill in the gaps in our timeline!
1886
Early &
Mid-C20th
DUAFC is officially founded with the very first fixtures including Sunderland, Middlesbrough Ironopolis and Darlington. The club later built up a fixture list focused more on university sides such as Edinburgh and Victoria.
In the early to mid-20th Century Durham produced players who went onto represent (now) professional clubs: Tommy Jackson represented Aston Villa in the 1924 FA Cup Final; Thomas Blyth represented Newcastle United and Joe Shaw played for Hull and Sunderland.
Edwin "Eddy" Brown
Notable (Honorary) Alumnus
Eddy Brown scored 232 goals in the Football League; while with Birmingham City, he won an FA Cup runners-up medal in 1956 and became the first Englishman to score a competitive goal against Barcelona (Wilkins, n.d.). He is widely credited as being the father of the modern goal celebration (Wheeler, 2012). While he attended Durham as a postgraduate at age 54, we will claim him as an honorary DUAFC Member!
Photo (Wheeler, 2012).
1956. Men's National Champions.
Warren Bradley
The only player ever to represent professional and amateur England teams in the same season
Warren Bradley attended Hatfield College, before playing for local sides Durham City & Bishop Auckland.
​
Following the Munich Air Disaster in 1958, Manchester United signed Bradley to support their rebuild - going onto make his first-team debut for United against his boyhood club, Bolton Wanderers.
​
In May 1959, Bradley was selected by England manager, Walter Winterbottom, and became the first and only player to play for both the professional and amateur England teams in the same season.
Photo - Wood (n.d.)
1976.
Men's National Championship Finalists.
Three Promotions in Three Years for DUAFC
From the relative obscurities of Tier 3 in the university pyramid, DUAFC M1s earned back-to-back-to-back promotions to take their place in the BUCS Premier Division. Notably, the 2011/12 team earned 30 points from 30 in their promotion from Tier 2B. The M1s (pictured left) went on to claim 24 points to top Northen 1A the following year, earning promotion to the BUCS Prem for the first time since the turn of the millennium.
BUCS Women's National Champions
Futsal 2011, 2012, 2013
Football 2015, 2017, 2018
The 2010s undoubtedly belonged to Durham University AFC Women's First XI, as they won six titles in eight years!
​
Three consecutive Futsal National Championship titles in 2011, 2012 and 2013 cemented DUWAFC as a higher education footballing heavyweight, which soon translated into success in eleven-a-side football. The W1s won their inaugural Women's Football National Championship in 2015, before winning in consecutive years in 2017 and 2018.
The Decade of DUWAFC
2015/16 M1s - Champions of the North
The M1s had a season to remember as they won BUCS Northern Premier Division for the first time, claiming seven wins in their 22 points! They went on to earn a place in the BUCS Nationals semi-finals - also a first since the turn of the millennium.
Premiership Survival Secured
Having been placed in a tri-tournament to secure BUCS Northern Premier status, the 2018/19 M1s found themselves needing to win by a 5 goal margin in the final game of the season against Derby...
They ran out 10-0 victors.
Recent Alumni
Several players have gone on in recent years to play in the professional game.
2012 - 2015
Jonny Giles
After graduating from Durham with a degree in physics, Jonny went on to play for Oxford United in League Two before playing at the top of the non-league pyramid. Photo - BBC (2015).
Watch Jonny set BUCS football alight here.
2011 - 2014
Oliver Gill
Oliver featured heavily for Manchester United's reserve team and won the Denzil Haroun Reserve Player of the Year award in 2011, after which he decided to study economics at Durham. Photo from Sky Sports (2010).
2013 - 2016
Mike King
Mike joined Burnley FC where he appeared in the League Cup. He later moved to play professionally in Singapore, before coming to Durham University where he captained and played an integral role in the 2015/16 team.
Goalkeeper
Ben Dudzinski
In the 2021/22 season, Ben was named in the National League South Team Of The Year. He has played for Hartlepool United amongst other teams at the top of the non-league pyramid. Photo from Power and Styles (2020).
2019 - 2020
Wouter Verstraaten
Wouter, formerly of PSV and later Portland Timbers joined Durham for a Masters. Although offered a contract at Sunderland, Wouter opted for the security of staying at South Shields. Photo from Gav (2020).
2021 - 2022
Bob Groenendijk
Bob played his academy days at PSV Eindhoven through to the U21s and trained with the first team. Before doing a Masters at Durham, he went to the US to join up with the Pacific Tigers. Photo from Elfrink (2015).
2022. Women's Futsal National Champions.
2022/23 - A Ground-Breaking Season.
67 years in the making. The M1s became the first men's side since 1956 to be crowned national champions, having defeated Stirling 2-1 in the final. The team won their final 6 games of the season and were unbeaten from November 2022. Read More. This success followed a league campaign in which the M1s claimed 7 points from their final 3 games to stay up in a final-day shootout that relegated Loughborough. Read More.
National Champions 2023
National Champions 2023
Durham W1s retained their BUCS Futsal Championship, following a 10-1 win vs Hartpury in the final.
Durham United
DUAFC Steps into Non-League
The 2022/23 season also saw DUAFC take their first step into non-league football as they partnered with Durham United FC to compete in Wearside Division One, meaning the boys, by and large, halted their college footballing exploits. The league has proven a good test for the boys, with the different style of football certainly developing all involved. Pictured: An injury time winner for Durham United sees he boys pile into the corner!
Futsal Three-Peat
DUWAFC go back-to-back-to-back claiming the 2024 National Futsal Championship!
​
The success came in addition to winning BUCS Women's Football Championship silver medals several weeks prior, following an unfortunate penalty shootout loss versus a Loughborough side playing at home.
Sources
Sources are first hand accounts, archival evidence and online records.