History
The Manchester Titans American Football Club was established in 2003 with the creation of its Adult Contact team. Manchester has a long tradition in American Football, the first every game played in the UK was the Northwich Spartans v the London Ravens. They would go on to become the Manchester Spartans and alongside other Manchester Allstars would win National and European titles.
The sport declined in the late 1990s and by 2003 there was no active team in Manchester. Led by Lee Morton and Rik Lowthion, a group of local players no longer wanted to travel to play and decided to bring the game back to the City. Arguing over what to call the team in a local nightclub, they went home and were inspired by watching the film Remember The Titans.
The Adult Contact team have competed in British American football continually since 2005 and have progressed through the British leagues to be Britbowl Champions in 2022 and 2023. Starting in Division 2, the team has playoff runs in 2005, 2007 and 2009 and 2010. In the later two years the team finish the regular season with perfect 10-0 records and in 2010 they reached the D2 National Final where they lost to the London Olympians side 35-13. After a brief stint in D1 the team were relegated back to D2 but achieved promotion again in 2015.
In 2017 a group of players and coaches who had previously been at the Titans returned and immediately brought success as the team earned promotion into the Premier Division, again playing the London Olympians in the National Final, this time the Titans won the game 46-23.
Now a Premier Division team for the first time the Titans made the playoffs in their first two seasons, 7-3 and 8-2 record earned a semi-final spot but they lost to the London Warriors on both occasional. The Lockdowns scuppered the 2020 season but a renewed Titans team came back in 2021 and won the regionalised competition with an unbeaten 11-0 records to be crowned Red Rose Champions. With no National Playoffs they had to wait until 2022, after finishing 9-1 to win their first Premier North Division Title, the Titans defeated the Bristol Aztecs in the semi final and then upset all of Britbowl with a commanding 37-7 victory over the London Warriors to claim their first Britbowl Title. The reigning champions went one better in 2023 going undefeated to again beat the Warriors in the final 43-27 to claim back to back titles.
The Club added an U16 Team in 2006 and saw success in 2008 finishing 3rd in the UK and were crowned English Champions. 2009 saw the club expand again – this time at Junior Level (16-19 years) who entered the league in 2010. Driven in the early years by Verity Dean (nee Brawn) the Titans Youth and Junior teams have consistently been one of the strongest in the country. A relaunch in 2013 and the addition of a second U16 team in the North of the City saw the Titans teams achieve great success with U16 Divisional Titles in 2016, 2107, 2018, 2021 and 2023. The U19s have divisional titles in 2017 and 2018 with being Britbowl Trophy Winners in 2019, Runner-up in 2017 and Britbowl Runner-Up in 2018.
In 2014 the Club added the Adult Flag Team and Women’s Team.
The Club has had some talented and notable players over the year including Ricky Whittle and Chris Fountain (ex-Hollyoaks stars), Graham Roberts, Mark Squire, Nigel Dias, (all have represented GB Lions). Several players have also gone on to play Football overseas including Anthony Bingham (Germany), Ashley Dewing (Germany & Finland), James Newnes (Brazil), William Wakatega, “Slick” Semper, Philip & Caleb Waldecker (all USA).
There are currently 4 Members of the Titans Hall of Fame – Former GM Tony McCulloch, Former HC Olando Holman, Former DL Neil Cash and Former LB Chris Harwood.