George Johnson, Wilf Evans, Ray Hamer

Billy Stott was sold to keep the club alive financially and Rovers had to find more local talent to fill the gaps in their rapidly depleting team. One youngster who stepped forward was Wilf Evans, the oldest of three brothers who started a family dynasty at Post Office Road. Wilf was a talented back who played mainly at stand-off but also at scrum-half during a productive eight year career spanning a total of 199 senior games with 29 tries. He formed notable halfback partnerships with Billy Hayes, Allen Ward and Ray Hamer. Wilf’s younger brother Joe was a scrum-half who made his debut in 1932 and went on to play 22 games over three seasons, most of them partnering his brother in the halves. Their youngest brother was another half-back. Ray Evans signed for Rovers in 1951 and played 73 games in four seasons before being sold to Rochdale. Ray’s son Barry also played as a scrum-half in the early seventies and Barry’s son Danny had a long career as a loose-forward at Featherstone and of course is our assistant coach today. 

George Johnson Junior

Another player who featured in the thirties was the son of Rovers’ founding father and club president. Despite his father controlling the club, George Johnson junior had to battle his way into the team the same as any other player. Fortunately he was good enough to dispel any hint of favouritism. On the field Rovers had a pretty grim time of it throughout the thirties, but Johnson did his best to lighten the gloom with some classy touches from stand-off. He played 103 games for Rovers, managing six tries and 50 goals. Ten of those goals came on the same day against Bradford in October 1931. That record tally stood 33 years until Don Fox beat it. In January 1935 George Johnson became one of the first British players to play rugby league in France when he was involved in a series of exhibition games playing for a British Empire XIII. As club captain in 1935 his portrait appeared on Ogden’s cigarette cards that year, a mark of fame in those days. Inevitably Rovers’ financial problems led him to be sold, and Hunslet came in with an offer where Johnson linked up with former Rovers team-mates Ernie Winter and Cyril Plenderleith.

Once Johnson had left, and Wilf Evans’ career with Featherstone was coming to an end, Rovers used Ray Hamer at stand-off as well as Bill Hughes and George Morgan. The latter, one of many players with that famous surname who have played for Featherstone over the years, actually played 42 games for us at stand-off but left very little trace in the history books. For a couple of seasons after the outbreak of the Second World War Hamer and future head coach Harold Moxon became a relatively stable half-back combination.

Billy Stott

Billy Stott in the colours of Broughton Rangers

Local youngster Billy Stott got the chance to fill Jimmy Williams’ shoes, and there can be no doubt that if he had stayed at Featherstone for a little longer in his career, he would have gone on to become one of the club’s great players too. Originally signed as a seventeen year old from our own junior set-up, Billy made his debut in March 1930. He had quick feet, good hands, a kicking game and a great step. He was obviously destined to become a very good stand-off indeed. Thrown straight into a struggling first team as a youngster presented no problems for Billy and he stood out as a future star. In his first full season he partnered the veteran Charlie Annable at half-back and managed 10 tries and 22 goals from 37 matches. The following season Rovers tried a new half-back combination with Wilf Evans partnering Billy Hayes. Billy simply slotted into the centres and continued to develop his game there. In the summer of 1933 after another successful season, Featherstone fans wondered how long they could onto the prize asset that Stott had become. Manchester giants Broughton Rangers moved in and offered Rovers a (then) mammoth £750 and our club was in no position to turn down that kind of money. No sooner had he left Featherstone than he was rewarded with his county cap, the first of seven appearances he made for Yorkshire.

Stott served Broughton well but as the 1930s came to a close they too had financial problems of their own and Billy was sold to Oldham to help balance the books. The story of the decline of professional RL in Manchester continued as they moved to Belle Vue, changing their name in the process. By 1955 the club was defunct. Billy continued to offer Oldham good service, and when the war was on he even found time to come back to his hometown team at Featherstone and play three games as a guest in 1940 and a further two more in 1944. Once the war was over, Billy made his final move, nearer home, when he left Oldham for Wakefield. Now in his 30s and after seventeen seasons in the game, Billy was destined to have his finest hour and write his name into the record books forever. Wakefield won through to the first post-war Challenge Cup final and faced Wigan at Wembley. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Stott scored two tries, converted one of them and then landed a dramatic late penalty to win Trinity the Challenge Cup against the odds. He was named man of the match and was awarded the newly inaugurated Lance Todd Trophy. The list of great players who have won that honour since May 1946 is long and glorious, and there at the top is Featherstone born-and-bred Billy Stott.

Joe Mullaney

Joe Mullaney

When Featherstone Rovers signed Jackie Fennell from Bagley’s Recs in December 1952, they thought they had signed a future star stand-off. Although he was to have a long and successful career at Post Office Road, things didn’t work out that way. A few months later, Peter Fox’s younger brother Don was signed as a scrum-half. And in the summer of 1953 Rovers took on another youngster who had grown up on Albert Terrace in Sharlston who was fifteen months older than Don. Those three signings provided the backbone of one of Featherstone’s greatest sides.

Joe Mullaney played a single game as an unnamed trialist in a charity match versus Wakefield. He was promptly signed and went straight into the first team in August 1953 under coach Eric Batten. Within a month, Joe’s great friend Don had taken over from Tommy Smales and our greatest half-back partnership ever was formed. The following season Jackie Fennell slotted into full-back and the backline structure that was to serve the club so well for so many years was complete.

Joe’s rise to the top was swift. Within a year he had won county honours for Yorkshire. Within two, his England cap. His representative career never really took off though, due to some inopportune injuries and the handicap of playing at an unfashionable club like Featherstone.

Domestically, Featherstone Rovers carried all before them under Batten then Harold Moxon. Season after season of high league finishes were sprinkled with herculean performances in the Challenge Cup which went down in Rovers folklore. Perhaps the most famous of those was in March 1959 when more than 17,000 fans jammed into the ground to watch Joe lead his team to a famous Cup quarter-final victory over St. Helens. Despite their heroics, it is hard to believe Joe never played at Wembley. His record of four Cup semi-final defeats in 1955, 58, 59 and 60 is a travesty. In the Yorkshire Cup he managed to make a final, captaining the side to win the 1959 competition against Hull.

What made Mullaney such a great stand-off? He had pace, wonderful hands, a side-step, a hand-off and an eye for a gap. He also had a very quick mind which could read a game. He was a very solid tackler and never shirked on defence. As club captain, he led by example and was an inspiration to his team-mates.

In total, Joe played 319 games for Featherstone Rovers and scored 85 tries. He had his benefit year in 1963, a joint award with Don Fox, although truth be told both players deserved their own separate years, such was the service they had given. Injuries forced Joe’s retirement in 1965. Affable, well-mannered and modest off the field, he remained a very popular figure long after he had retired. Joe Mullaney died in December 2015 aged 81.

Jimmy Williams

Stand-offs come in all shapes and sizes, and local product Jimmy Williams was your prototype classical stand-off, with good hands for distribution and linking with the three-quarters, a good step for running and an excellent kicking game. He started at Featherstone in 1919 whilst Rovers were still a junior club and comfortably made the step up to the big league in 1921. At stand-off in our first ever senior match Jimmy slotted a drop goal to open the scoring at Odsal and so score Featherstone Rovers first ever points. 95 years and more than 58,000 points later, today’s scorers will always follow in Jimmy’s footsteps. That first year he formed an effective half-back combination with the experienced Joe Kirkham, but his most productive partnership came a couple of years later with Charlie Annable.

Jimmy Williams

Williams’ career highlights undoubtedly both came in the year 1928. In May he played in the Championship final versus Swinton at Oldham. In October he played versus Leeds in the Yorkshire Cup final. Both games were lost, but there was immense pride and satisfaction to be taken from the fact that a newish club with very modest finances and a team full of local lads could scale such heights so early in their senior history.

In all, Jimmy Williams played 211 games for Featherstone, scoring 30 tries and kicking 120 goals. Even today, only Joe Mullaney has worn the number six shirt more times than Jimmy. After his benefit match was played in 1929, he left for York before his retirement as a player. His departure together with the later losses of other mainstays of our Championship final team including the Denton brothers and Ernie Barraclough, signalled a sharp decline in the club’s fortunes.

When the RFL were looking to expand the game in 1936 they set up a fledgling club in Newcastle and Jimmy Williams was appointed trainer. The club only lasted two seasons and folded when the backers pulled out.

Jimmy’s younger brother Billy was a decent player in his time and an all-round sportsman and he served Featherstone Rovers as a physio and conditioner from the 1920s right through to the 1960s. Then Billy’s son Jim (named after his uncle) carried on the role through to the 1980s.

Terry Ramshaw. 1943 to 2017. Rest in Peace.

Ramshaw scores v Australia 1963

TERRY RAMSHAW was one of the most highly respected second-row forwards in the Sixties and Seventies. He played for a variety of clubs, and appeared in four major finals, unfortunately tasting defeat on each occasion. Terry began his career with Castleford Juniors before being snapped up by Featherstone Rovers in 1960. It wasn’t until the 1961-62 season that Terry made his first team debut. His forceful running and aggressive defence quickly triumphed alongside such stalwarts as Cliff Lambert and Colin Clifft in the Rovers’ back-row. He appeared in 15 games in his first season, which was unfortunately cut short by injuries. He built on this solid start and was soon a fixture in the team. An early career highlight was his performance against the touring Australians in October 1963, as Rovers stormed to another famous Rovers victory, Ramshaw marking the occasion with a try. Over the next five seasons he went on to play exactly 100 games for Rovers, scoring a very useful 27 tries. His best return came in the 1964/5 season when he packed down in what must have been a real handful of a second-row for opposition defences alongside Arnie Morgan. That season Terry was awarded a Great Britain U-24 cap. The following year he had a dispute with the club and left for Halifax for £5,000 in October 1965. This was a record fee at the time, showing just how highly he was regarded.

It was at Thrum Hall where Terry next plied his trade, With some eye-catching displays it wasn’t long before Terry was picked for county honours, representing Yorkshire against Lancashire in 1966 and scoring two tries. Terry was by this stage an established star and he was on the move again, this time to Bradford Northern, who he signed for in October 1967. Once again, his raw aggression and hundred percent performances saw Terry quickly become a cult hero during his short stay at Odsal.

Ramshaw at Odsal, Bradford

Wakefield Trinity were next up for the now much travelled forward. Signing for Trinity in August 1968, he made a try scoring debut at Belle Vue as Wakefield defeated Salford by 31-12. After making over eighty appearances for Trinity, Terry was transferred to Salford for £2,000 in October 1971. He made his Salford bow at The Willows against Rochdale Hornets in the 1st round of the Floodlit Trophy. The 1972-73 season brought him another final, The John Player Final. But Terry was denied cup glory again as Leeds defeated Salford 12-7. 

After 41 appearances at The Willows, Ramshaw went to Hull KR. After several seasons there he returned to Lancashire at Oldham. Terry made 34 appearances for the Roughyeds before once more heading back to Yorkshire for the final time. He joined York in 1977 and played for them as substitute in the 1978 Yorkshire Cup Final. Unfortunately for the fourth time in his career he lost a major final. After a career spanning some seventeen years Terry finally hung up his boots at the end of the 1978 season. Considered a gentle giant off the pitch but fearless and uncompromising on it, Terry Ramshaw had a career only few can dream of.

 Thank you to Louise Woodward-Styles for much of the information on Terry's post-Featherstone career.

Steve Quinn. 1951 to 2016. Rest in Peace.

The Mighty Quinn

One of the most prolific rugby league points scorers of all-time, Steve Quinn, has died at the age of 64. He was one of Featherstone Rovers’ greatest ever players, a hall of fame member and popular man who has a permanent place in the hearts of all Rovers fans for his exploits in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley in 1983.

Stephen Quinn was born at York on 30^th November 1951 and as a youngster played at Tang Hall junior school, and later Heworth ARLFC. As a teenager he signed for his hometown club York in October 1970. At 6ft tall and a playing weight of 13 ½ stones, he fit ideally into the centre role, and in his second season quickly given the goal kicking duties, he established himself as a first teamer at York. After five seasons and a spell out of the game between April 1975 and February 1976, Featherstone made a move for Quinn and he came to Post Office Road in 1976 in a straight swop for Barry Hollis. He then set about breaking every single club goal and points record over the next 13 seasons in a blue and white shirt. In a team full of local lads, Quinn was often the ‘outsider’ based all his life at York, but such was his dedication that he would always be the first at training.

His first match for Featherstone was Wakefield at home in the Challenge Cup 15^th of February 1976, he kicked 4 goals and Rovers won 23-9.

He won a Championship medal in 1977.

He won a Second division Championship medal and The Second Division Player of the Year in 1980

He played in the Yorkshire Cup Final of 1977.

He won six Yorkshire county caps.

In his Featherstone Career he played 391 games, scored 75 tries, kicked 1,200 goals and 10 drop-goals and scored 2,656 points.

In his Rugby League Career he played 516 games, scored 92 tries, kicked 1,568 goals and 10 drop-goals and scored 3,438 points.

His greatest moment came in the Challenge Cup final in May 1983 at Wembley when his late penalty (his 4^th goal of the game) won the Cup for Featherstone against Hull 14-12.

He was granted a Testimonial season in 1986/87

His final starting match was Widnes away on 13^th of November 1988 and his final appearance was Leeds away on 11th of December 1988.

He was an inaugural member of the Featherstone Rovers Hall of Fame established in 1992.