@jpdewhirst
John Dewhirst is an aboriginal Bradfordian who can trace his family roots back at least eight generations to pre-industrial Bradford more than two hundred years ago. He has supported Bradford City for nearly 50 years.
John was co-founder of The City Gent in 1984 and then editor between 1986-88. He has been extensively involved in the publication of books about Bradford City during the last thirty years having authored a total of four books, jointly authored or collaborated on a further three and been involved in the production of another four.
His own books include City Memories (True North, 1998); A History of BCAFC in Objects (bantamspast, 2014); Room at the Top (bantamspast, 2016); and Life at the Top (bantamspast, 2016). He is currently working on another volume in the bantamspast History Revisited series that covers the twentieth century rivalry of Bradford City and Bradford Park Avenue.
John has a considerable collection of City and Park Avenue memorabilia and artefacts and it was this interest that prompted his book, A History of BCAFC in Objects which was hailed by author Hunter Davies as ‘the best illustrated history of any club he has ever read’. By profession John is a chartered accountant and self-employed, undertaking due diligence and turnaround assignments on behalf of financial investors and lenders. His books about the origins of sport and professional football in Bradford – Room at the Top and Life at the Top – provide background to the commercial circumstances of spectator sport in the city during the nineteenth century and are probably the first business histories to have been written about English rugby clubs.
He has written widely about the history and origins of Bradford sport and a summary of his articles can be found here: JD articles
He contributes a feature in the Bradford City match day programme, also published online: John’s blog, WOOL CITY RIVALS
John is a retired cycle time triallist and currently holds all the mens time trial records of East Bradford Cycling Club and in 2013 finished 14th in the British Best All-Rounder (BBAR) competition. Although he still rides two wheels, his preference nowadays is for motorised transportation. His other interests include local history and a fascination with that of his city of birth.
@Jason_Mckeown
Jason McKeown is a content manager for a financial services company – a role that primarily involves working as a copywriter and includes writing for national newspapers.
After emerging from university in 2003 clutching a journalism degree, but with what he considers to have been a mediocre grade, Jason realised he needed to build up some genuine writing experience and so began contributing to the popular Bradford City website, Boyfrombrazil.co.uk (BfB). It helped him get a writing job in 2005, and he continued contributing to BfB until 2011, spending the last four years as co-editor.
In December 2011 Jason set up his own Bradford City website – WIDTH OF A POST (WOAP). Through this he was able to report on Bradford City’s incredible cup adventures in 20/13 and 2014/15, as well as cover all angles of the club’s re-emergence from the League Two doldrums. More than 50 people have also contributed articles for the site, and the daily readership has grown to between six and seven thousand people, with more than two million hits since launch. In 2013, WOAP beat heavy competition to win ‘Best Established Blog’ at the Football Blogging Awards and was a finalist again the year after. In 2015 WOAP was named amongst the top 50 UK football blogs by Futbol50.
Jason first attended a Bradford City match in November 1997 and has been a season ticket holder for the majority of the subsequent years. In 2011 he had a book published about his time following the club, titled ‘Paying on the Gate‘. In 2016 his second book was published, ‘Reinventing Bradford City‘ and then in 2018, ‘Who We Are‘.
Jason lives in Skipton, North Yorkshire with his wife Rachel and daughter Georgina.
@RobGrillo
Only a complete lack of ability prevented Rob from becoming a professional footballer, and a complete lack of personality from becoming an 80s pop star. Out of desperation, he turned to writing instead, and has written extensively on a number of sports in the Keighley and district.
On a more light-hearted theme, Rob has written ‘Anoraknophobia’ (about people obsessed with sport) and ‘Is That The 12 Inch Remix?’ (about people obsessed with 80s music), both of which appeared in various Amazon best-seller lists; only the death of Brian Clough and some American called Bruce Springsteen preventing them from achieving the number 1 spot.
The fanzine ‘We’re Not Playing On THAT Pitch’ was winner of the Non-league football fanzine of the year in 2008, although he dropped the trophy and dented it while appearing on Radio Leeds alongside City Gent’s Mike Harrison (who won the Football League award that year too).
Rob has been a schoolteacher for nearly 30 years, and is currently in charge of Geography at a secondary school in Bradford. Many of his students have gone on to lead perfectly normal lives.
He also won the Bingley Half Marathon in 1992. It’s a long time ago but he still talks about it a lot.