Huddersfield Giants fans today drool about the skills of Danny Brough, Brett Ferres and Shaun Lunt.
But mention the name Harold Wagstaff in Rugby League circles and it’s a different matter, as we are talking rugby royalty.
The man nicknamed “The Prince of Centres” was a true sporting icon of his generation and a man revered throughout the world.
Now his story is to form a key part of the long-awaited Huddersfield Histories Week, organised by the University of Huddersfield. Fittingly, it, kicks off at 7.30pm on Tuesday 17 June with a talk by Prof Tony Collins about Wagstaff.
Prof Collins is historical consultant to the RFL, until recently was Director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University and is widely recognised as one of the country’s premier sports’ historians.
His talk will celebrate the centenaries of Wagstaff’s greatest achievements. On July 4, 1914 he led the Great Britain Northern Union tourists to victory in one of the game’s most famous matches, the Rorke’s Drift Test Match. Reduced to just nine men at one point in the second half, Wagstaff inspired his team to a 14-6 victory in the third and deciding Test Match against Australia at Sydney.
The tourists returned to a country at war, but the 1914-15 season was largely unaffected and Wagstaff led Huddersfield’s ‘Team of all Talents’ to all four trophies that season, a feat matched only by Hunslet in 1907-08 and by Swinton in 1927-28.
Wagstaff’s achievements are also celebrated in a trail of his home village of Holmfirth, visiting locations significant to his life. The trail is to be launched on the day following Prof Collins’ talk, Wednesday, June 18, and will be available free at Tourist Information Centres and for download from huddersfieldrlheritage.co.uk and from discoverhuddersfield.tumblr.com.
Wagstaff and the trail are also the subject of a feature on Radio Leeds to be broadcast in June.
Organised in partnership between the university and the Huddersfield Rugby League: A Lasting Legacy heritage project, Prof Collins’ talk begins at 7.30pm in the Canalside East Building at the University of Huddersfield and is free of charge to the public.
FACTFILE
Harold Wagstaff was born in Holmfirth on May 9, 1891
He died in July 1939 aged just 48
His only club team was Huddersfield and he made 436 appearances between 1906 and 1925
He scored 175 tries and kicked 12 goals
Wagstaff represented England 9 times and Great Britain 12 times
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