Player Profile

Born in Cardiff Bay, he attended South Church Street School and graduated from Cardiff Youth to Halifax in 1961, signing on as a 17-year-old. With Johnny Freeman he helped Halifax win the Championship title for the first time in 57 years in 1964 and became club captain in 1967. He won the first of his 14 Great Britain caps in the 1968-69 season when he moved on to Salford for a then world record fee of £15,000. He played in eight major finals at Salford, winning the Lancashire Cup in 1972 and the BBC Floodlit Trophy in 1975. Salford also won the League Championship in 1974 and 1976. He was briefly player-coach at Salford before heading for one final season to Hull Kingston Rovers, where he won the Premiership title and reached the Yorkshire Cup final. He later coached Halifax and left in dramatic circumstances, being pushed out after the club signed 10 Australians and felt they needed an Australian head coach! So he moved to coach Keighley and also became a director at that club. He did return to Halifax, for a third time, to coach their academy side and sadly died of a stroke, whilst training them, on 21 June 1993, aged 49. A member of GB's 1972 World Cup winning squad, he also played in the 1975 tournament for Wales and starred in the famous "Battle of Brisbane". He scored 177 tries in 738 first-class matches and is in the Halifax RL Hall of Fame. His grandson Chester Butler also went onto play for Wales.