Billy Boston, the retired Welsh rugby star who was a pioneering figure for black professional athletes in Great -Britain, was knighted on Tuesday by King Charles III in a special ceremony in Buckingham Palace.
Boston, 90, is generally considered one of the best to play Rugby League, the faster, more free -flowing version of the game, with 13 players on one side instead of 15, as in Rugby Union. He spent most of his career with Wigan Warriors, where he achieved 488 performances from 1953 to 1968 and ended his career with a British record of 571 attempts, the rugby equivalent of touchdowns in American football.
He was the first black player to represent Great -Britain in his rugby League National Team, during a tour through Australia and New Zealand in 1954. He scored 24 attempts in 31 international performances for Great -Britain and played a crucial role in Groot -Britain’s Rugby League World Cup Championship in 1960Score against Australia in the final.
Boston, who revealed in 2016 that he had been diagnosed with vascular dementiahas not made a public statement about the knighthood. The BBC reported On Tuesday that his wife, Joan, said that his family was “excited that everything he did for the sport and is recognized for our community.”
His son Stephen, who appeared with his father after the ceremony, said that the knighthood “came for a long time” and “should have been much earlier”, and noticed that his father was the first player in the 130-year history of Rugby League to Ridden.
Boston collected various major awards from Wigan, the team said on her websiteAnd won the oldest Rugby League Cup in the world three times.
Mike Danson, the current owner of Wigan, said on the website of the team that the Knighthood of Boston was a ‘richly deserved honor’.
“Without a doubt, Billy was a player who was the biggest crowd favorite in Rugby League – and still is – he said.
In Wigan’s 1959 Challenge Cup victory against Hull, Boston scored two attempts for a crowd of almost 80,000 in Wembley Stadium. He was the most productive try-scorer in the history of Rugby League and ‘an iconic figure in the history of British sport’, Tony Sutton, the chief, the competition, the competition, said on Tuesday in a statement.
Politicians in Noord -Engand, where Rugby League is the most popular, had spoken for years frustration that a rugby league player had not had any knighthood, especially in view of the fact that different rugby union players had been given the honor.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer van Groot -Britain said on social media On Tuesday it was “a historical mistake” that it had taken so long before a rugby league player received a knighthood. Boston, he said, was “a legend of the game that conquered prejudices to represent Great Britain and opened the door to a more diverse game.”
“The first knighthood in Rugby League could not go to a more earning player,” said Starmer.
- Advertisement -
