Rugby League hero Billy Boston, now 90, will be given the honour at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, ending the sport’s 130-year wait
Rugby League hero Billy Boston is set to become the sports first-ever knight at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. The honour for the Cardiff-born Wigan player will end Rugby League’s 130-year wait for the honour.
Now aged 90, Boston was a trailblazer for black sports stars when he played for Wigan and Great Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. The honour follows a campaign by his MP and councillors for him to be recognised as well as a campaign calling for the sports’ first knighthood.
Sir Billy’s wife Joan said: “Billy’s family are so proud of him and so excited that everything he’s done for the sport and for our community is being recognised. He is a wonderful person who has always loved rugby league and all of the people involved in the sport.”
Sir Billy scored a huge 571 tries in a career that ended at the age of 36.
He was awarded the MBE in 1996, and was one of the first inductees in the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 1998, joining the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame the following year.
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He received the freedom of Wigan in 2000 and is immortalised in three statues, in Wigan, Wales and at Wembley.
Tony Sutton, the Chief Executive of the RFL, said: “On behalf of the Rugby Football League, and the sport of Rugby League, it is a privilege to congratulate Sir Billy Boston on his knighthood.
“Sir Billy deserves to be recognised as an iconic figure in the history of British sport, for the way he overcame prejudice in his journey from working-class Cardiff to legendary status in Wigan, and became the most prolific British try-scorer in the 130-year history of Rugby League.”
There has been growing frustration over the lack of Rugby League honours, with a group of cross-party MPS suggesting it was down to snobbery.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “The first knighthood for a rugby league player is long-overdue recognition for a game that has contributed so much to our national life.
“This is the moment we right a historic wrong,” she said.