The Wigan Warriors legend Billy Boston has become the first rugby league player in the sport’s 130-year history to receive a knighthood.
Rugby league has never had a player awarded the highest accolade in an honours list, with calls increasing in recent years thanks to the fundraising done away from the field by people such as Kevin Sinfield – who is expected to be given a similar honour at some stage – and the late Rob Burrow. But Boston’s name has also always been high on the list of candidates overlooked.
That, however, has finally changed. Boston has been named as a knight on Tuesday to end the sport’s wait for such an honour. The 90-year-old is not only one of rugby league’s greatest players but one of the pioneering black figures in British sport history.
Boston was born in Cardiff but his opportunities in rugby union were limited. That led to him signing for Wigan in 1953, where he remained until 1968, setting a number of astonishing records along the way in a glittering career. In 488 games he scored 478 tries, establishing himself as the club’s leading try-scorer with a record that will surely never be beaten. He was also a member of Great Britain’s World Cup-winning squad of 1960, playing for his country on 31 occasions.
His accomplishments laid the platform for more players from Wales to make the transition to rugby league from union, with a statue in the centre of Wigan immortalising his importance to the town’s history. There is a similar statue in Cardiff of Boston and two more trailblazers from Wales that starred in league, Clive Sullivan and Gus Risman.
Boston’s accomplishments have now been finally recognised on a national stage. It is a symbolic moment for league as well as Boston, with the sport getting the honour many believe it has undeservedly lacked for decades.
Dozens of high-profile figures from rugby union have been knighted over the past century, with nobody from league achieving a similar honour until now.
