Jim Mills - Prop
Wales RLHeritage No | 279 |
Date Of Birth | 24/09/1944 |
Place Of Birth | Aberdare |
Height | 186 |
Weight | 110 |
Clubs | Widnes Vikings, Workington Town, North Sydney Bears, Bradford Bulls, Salford Red Devils, Halifax Panthers, Cardiff |
Honours | Wales RL, Great Britain, Other Nationalities |
Managed | Wales RL Management, Wales RL |
Aberdare-born but Jim went to school at Herbert Thompson Primary School in Ely, Cardiff and was two years' behind Clive Sullivan at that establishment. In the playground Clive used to call Jim ‘lanky’ and make use of this phenomenal speed to get away. Years later when Clive was playing for Hull he got tackled just before the try-line by Jim who said to him ‘Now, who did you call lanky?’
"Big Jim" was an uncompromising prop forward. He originally played rugby union with Cardiff RFC, before turning professional with Halifax in 1965. He won 17 full caps for Wales, including appearances in the 1975 World Cup where he was part of the side who beat England in the famous "Battle of Brisbane". He won six caps for Great Britain and made another 17 tour appearances in his four Lions tours. His international exploits gave him a place in the first ever World XIII, that was revealed in June 1978 in Open Rugby Magazine. After three years at Halifax and a short spell at Salford, he spent two seasons at Bradford before going down under with North Sydney Bears, who were a top level team at the time. Returning to England in 1972, he joined Widnes, and it was then that the honours came. A try scorer at Wembley Stadium in 1975 when Widnes beat Warrington, this was just past of his on-field rivalry with fellow Welshman Mike Nicholas. The trophy was one of 11 in eight years that he helped Widnes to win. Even when spending a year at Workington Town in 1976-77, he played in a Lancashire Cup Final but they lost... to Widnes.
After 343 competitive games of professional rugby league, Jim retired and became the Chairman of Widnes, bringing Jonathan Davies to the club, then steering them through the chaos of the mid-1990s when Super League, summer rugby and proposed mergers were sprung on the game. In 1991, when Wales relaunched the international side, Jim became the first team manager, staying in that role for three years. He was inducted into the inaugural Widnes Hall of Fame in 1992. Officially the head of the Past Players Association at Widnes, he does enough to perform a similar role in the north for WRL. His son David also won Welsh caps including one as captain.
"Big Jim" was an uncompromising prop forward. He originally played rugby union with Cardiff RFC, before turning professional with Halifax in 1965. He won 17 full caps for Wales, including appearances in the 1975 World Cup where he was part of the side who beat England in the famous "Battle of Brisbane". He won six caps for Great Britain and made another 17 tour appearances in his four Lions tours. His international exploits gave him a place in the first ever World XIII, that was revealed in June 1978 in Open Rugby Magazine. After three years at Halifax and a short spell at Salford, he spent two seasons at Bradford before going down under with North Sydney Bears, who were a top level team at the time. Returning to England in 1972, he joined Widnes, and it was then that the honours came. A try scorer at Wembley Stadium in 1975 when Widnes beat Warrington, this was just past of his on-field rivalry with fellow Welshman Mike Nicholas. The trophy was one of 11 in eight years that he helped Widnes to win. Even when spending a year at Workington Town in 1976-77, he played in a Lancashire Cup Final but they lost... to Widnes.
After 343 competitive games of professional rugby league, Jim retired and became the Chairman of Widnes, bringing Jonathan Davies to the club, then steering them through the chaos of the mid-1990s when Super League, summer rugby and proposed mergers were sprung on the game. In 1991, when Wales relaunched the international side, Jim became the first team manager, staying in that role for three years. He was inducted into the inaugural Widnes Hall of Fame in 1992. Officially the head of the Past Players Association at Widnes, he does enough to perform a similar role in the north for WRL. His son David also won Welsh caps including one as captain.
PLAYER FOR | P | W | D | L | TRY | GOALS | DG | PTS | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Great Britain | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Wales RL | 17 | 6 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |||
TOTAL | 23 | 9 | 0 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
Note: The statistics tab shows all of the player’s known appearances for this particular Wales side against international sides or other non-capped recognised first class matches. To see exactly how many full test rugby league caps for Wales (or any other country) that this player has, please click the “Test Summary” tab. Nines individual player records are not shown, please click here for full details about Nines. Please also note that clubs’ current names are used throughout this website, due to the database only being able to feed one name per club (e.g. Wigan will also be known as Wigan Warriors throughout all player profiles).