Holy Hull! Tigers scratch their way into English Premier League

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As a feast of a sports month begins, please reserve a smidgen of mirth for the fans of Hull.

‘Hull’ would be short for Kingston-upon-Hull, a city in northeast England that has spent excessive time alongside the adjective ‘beleaguered.’ In 2005, the British network Channel 4, citing matters such as crime statistics and employment figures, named Hull the United Kingdom’s worst place to live. In 2007, on that same list, it apparently finished No. 2, with comments including that it existed ‘in isolation.’

Well, with that backdrop, the Hull City Tigers of the biggest sport on earth -- English soccer -- have pulled off something almost extra-terrestrial. They’ve barged upward through four leagues in six years so that last Saturday they could pull off an upset downright unimaginable.

Back on October 5, 2002, Hull City dwelled in 18th place in the fourth tier of English soccer, three leagues and 86 places from the very top, Class-A in baseball parlance. By spring 2004, Hull had moved up to the third division by finishing second in the 24-club fourth. By spring 2005, it had reached the second division by finishing second in the 24-team third. In spring 2008, it had reached the top level for the first time in its 104-year history by finishing third and winning a playoff in the 24-club second tier.

Whew.

So as it debuted in the colossal English Premier League on Aug. 16, 2008, in fabulously stylish tiger stripes that can make you wonder why our Greatest Country On Earth can’t muster a team in fabulously stylish tiger stripes, people wondered whether Hull City could stay afloat in the 20-team Premier League.

Well, since then, Hull has become maybe even the place to be upon sporting earth. The Tigers have won three games, drawn two, lost only once and then, last Saturday, dared to beat regal Arsenal in a 2-1 electroshocker on the road in London in front of 60,000 befuddled, bewildered and maybe even benumbed souls.

This weekend, Hull City will play in London at Tottenham -- a large, proud club astoundingly sitting 20th out of 20 with a fan base that doesn’t tend to fancy its club 20th out of 20 -- and reasonable people think Hull City’s Tigers can win.

It’s early yet, but from 18th in the fourth division, they’ve reached sixth in the first, in the toughest league on the planet, in a place that can use the smiles.

-- Chuck Culpepper