Thirty six years on since Halifax’s famous Challenge Cup final win over St Helens, Wilf George still gets stopped in the street to talk about it.
And now he’s hoping the current Fax squad become forever recognisable when they take on the World Club champions in Friday’s sixth round tie. Winger George was a Wembley try-scorer when the West Yorkshire club stunned Saints 19-18 in the 1987 decider. It was their first Cup victory since the start of World War II and they haven’t lifted the trophy since.
But the Championship part-timers are looking to cause another upset against their star-studded rivals. George, 63, said: “I live in Halifax. And it is 36 years ago. But even just yesterday I was talking to a guy who was walking his dog and he realised who I was. He was over the moon to meet me.
"That day put Halifax on the rugby league map. The whole town was behind it and people still talk about it now. And they’re excited again for Friday. It’s probably a good time to take on St Helens as they have a few players injured and Matty Lees banned.
“Since winning the World Club Challenge, they haven’t been playing that well. When we get them down to The Shay, history might repeat itself. We were underdogs in ‘87 and managed to beat them so on home soil, with the Halifax public behind them, you never know.”
Simon Grix’s side are massive 12/1 underdogs to stun the Super League champions so they’d instantly enter Halifax folklore, just like John Pendlebury, if they did. Pendlebury, of course, scored the match-winning drop goal in 1987 but also produced a memorable try-saving tackle to clinch Chris Anderson’s side the trophy.
George, who has worked on the RFL’s disciplinary committee for 27 years, recalled: “I played 11 games after leaving Widnes in February 1986 and we won the Championship that season. That was a great achievement. I got a medal for that but it didn’t mean as much to me as Wembley ‘87 which is something I’ll take to my grave.
“The year before, Castleford got there and David Plange told me to just enjoy it as, before you know it, the game’s gone. That was the case until the last five minutes when St Helens started putting us under pressure. That five minutes then felt like eternity!
"When Mark Elia dived over in the corner at the end, I was on the opposite wing but he was mid-air and my whole world fell apart. My heart just sank.
“But then John (Pendlebury) came across and punched the ball out of Elia’s grasp. I didn’t think the referee John Holdsworth had seen it. But he did. It was disallowed.
"Graham Eadie came out of retirement for that final and played quite well but John Pendlebury should have been man of the match. He was fantastic. His drop goal proved the difference - and that tackle.”
While Saints have gone on to lift the Cup eight times since, and become one of the summer era’s most dominant clubs, Halifax have long been out of the top-flight after their 2003 relegation. But they are currently joint-third in the Championship after winning seven of their opening 11 games and hold ambitions for a Super League return. George, who scored 75 tries in 141 games for the West Yorkshire club, said: “I would love to see that.
“I know quite a few of the sponsors and that’s what they are aiming for. I do think Halifax are sleeping giants. When I finished playing I refereed amateur rugby league and there were loads of teams in Halifax so the interest is still there.
"If they got back in Super League and saw these stars week in week out, I’m sure the crowds would come flocking to The Shay and start to rekindle what we had in the past.”
