Billy Boston to become rugby league’s first knight in historic moment

Billy Boston will become the first rugby league player in the sport’s history to be knighted this week.

Incredibly, league has never had a player given the highest accolade possible in an honour’s list – despite growing calls in recent years for men like Boston and Kevin Sinfield to be made a knight.

That wait finally ends on Tuesday, when Boston will be revealed as the first rugby league knight to recognise his historic career, the contribution he has made to the sport but also his place as one of the most influential black sportspeople in British history.

Boston was a legendary trailblazer. Born in Cardiff, he was initially unable to forge a path in rugby union so switched to league in 1953 with a move north to sign for Wigan.

He would stay there for 15 years, scoring almost 500 tries, becoming the club’s greatest ever try-scorer with a record that would never be beaten and represent Great Britain on 31 occasions. He was part of the Great Britain squad that won the 1960 Rugby League World Cup, too.

A statue immortalising Boston’s exploits is in Wigan town centre, with a similar statue of the winger, Clive Sullivan and Gus Risman – two more legendary trailblazing Welsh league legends.

But his achievements will now finally be recognised on a national stage.

It is no less than Boston deserves, and it finally brings an end to the lengthy wait for a league player to be knighted.

Calls have grown in recent years about the grave injustice that the sport has never had a player given the honour, while many other sports have had dozens knighted.

Sinfield’s incredible fundraising is likely to now see him be made a knight at some stage, but it will be Boston who perhaps fittingly becomes the first. The 90-year-old will be officially knighted on Tuesday in a service at Buckingham Palace.

And it is no less than he deserves.