Johnny Whiteley

John William Whiteley MBE, born (1930-11-20) 20 November 1930 (age 91) is an English World Cup winning former professional rugby league footballer, and coach. A Great Britain international representative forward, and later coach, he played his entire club football with Hull FC.^[1][2][3][4]

Background[]

Whiteley was born in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.^[5]

Early life[]

Whiteley grew up during the Second World War in Hull; his house was hit by the biggest bomb to land in Hull during the war. He attended Scarborough Street Infants School, Gordon Street Junior School and Westbourne Street School. He left school at 14.

At age 15, he joined Boulevard Police Boys' Club where he played football. Shortly afterwards he moved to Hull Boys' Club and played for the Hull Rugby League under-16 representative team. At the age of 18, Johnny joined the Military Police, 14 months of which were spent in Vienna, Austria.

Playing career[]

He signed for Hull F.C. in 1950 for free. Rather than offering Johnny a signing-on fee he was promised a place in the squad the following game. He played 15 seasons for Hull making 417 appearances and scoring 156 tries and 2 goals for at total of 472 points. In his time with Hull, he was never dropped.

In 1953 he played his first match for England against France in Paris, winning 13-15.

Johnny Whiteley was selected for Great Britain squad while at Hull for the 1954 Rugby League World Cup in France. However he did not participate in any of the four matches, with Dave Valentine playing as loose forward in all four matches.

He captained Hull from 1956 and that year the side won the league championship when Colin Hutton kicked a last-minute penalty in the final against Halifax at Maine Road, Manchester.

Hull won the European Club championship in 1957. Johnny Whiteley represented the Rest of the World in the 11–20 defeat by Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground on 29 June 1957. Then followed a trip to South Africa in which the British and French teams staged a series of exhibition matches for the promotion of the game. Johnny was a member of the 1958 Great Britain touring squad that retained the Ashes, and he scored a try in the 40–17 third Test success in Sydney.

In 1958 Hull won the play-offs again, against Workington Town. They lost in the Challenge Cup Final to Wigan at Wembley in 1959.

Whiteley was a member of the last Great Britain team to beat Australia on home soil in the 1959 test series, scoring the try that beat the Aussies that year.

Again Hull reached the Challenge Cup Final 1960 as runners up to winners Wakefield Trinity. He scored a match-winning try against the Aussies in the last few minutes which gave Great Britain the 1960 Ashes.

He was a member of the 1962 Great Britain team which won the Ashes in Australia.

Challenge Cup Final appearances[]

Johnny Whiteley played loose forward, and was captain in Hull FC's 13–30 defeat by Wigan in the 1958–59 Challenge Cup Final during the 1958–59 season at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 9 May 1959, in front of a crowd of 79,811,^[6] and played loose forward, and was captain in the 5–38 defeat by Wakefield Trinity in the Challenge Cup Final during the 1959–60 season at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 14 May 1960, in front of a crowd of 79,773.^[7]

Whiteley became player coach in October 1963.

Coaching career[]

Whiteley carried on coaching at Hull after his last appearance as a player. When Roy Francis retired as Hull coach in 1965, Whiteley, now himself retired with an injured shoulder, took over but resigned in 1970.

Whiteley moved across the river to Hull Kingston Rovers as coach in 1970 and stayed until 1972 when he left due to conflict with the Hull KR Board of Directors.

He coached the G.B. squad that toured Australia in 1970 and they were the last to win the Ashes in Australia. He left Hull on his return to coach Hull Kingston Rovers until leaving them in 1972. He then carried on coaching the Yorkshire Origin side for 12 years.

He was then recalled to coach Great Britain in 1980 for two years.

After rugby[]

After his career finished, he ran a successful Working Men's Club (Eureka) in west Hull from which he also ran a gym. He later set up the West Hull amateur rugby league club.

He joined the Rugby Football League Roll of Honour in November 2004 having been nominated by both Hull and Hull Kingston Rovers.^[8] He was made an MBE for services to rugby league and the community in the 2005 New Year honours list.^[9] He was awarded an Honorary Degree from Hull University in 2012. In 2018 he was incorporated into the Rugby League Hall of Fame.

References[]

Sporting positions
Preceded by Eric Ashton 1979	Coach Great Britain 1980-1982	Succeeded by Frank Myler 1983-1984
Preceded by Eric Ashton 1979-1980	Coach England 1981	Succeeded by Reg Parker 1984
Preceded by Colin Hutton 1962-1968	Coach Great Britain 1970	Succeeded by Jim Challinor 1972-1974
Preceded by Colin Hutton 1957-1970	Coach Hull Kingston Rovers 1970-1972	Succeeded by Harry Poole 1975-1977
Preceded by Roy Francis 1949-1963	Coach Hull FC 1963-1970	Succeeded by Ivor Watts 1970-1971

External links[]