Billy Boston to become rugby league's first ever knight
- Billy Boston, a Welsh-born rugby league legend, was knighted at Buckingham Palace on June 11, 2025, becoming the sport’s first ever knight.
- Boston’s knighthood capped a career marked by overcoming racial prejudice after switching from rugby union to rugby league in 1953 and making history in 1954 as the first non-white Great Britain Lions tour player.
- He scored a British record 571 tries, including 478 for Wigan across 488 matches, and played in six Challenge Cup finals, winning titles in 1958, 1959, and 1965.
- The knighthood ceremony followed a longstanding campaign supported by MPs, local councillors, and sports bodies, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling it a correction of an 'historic wrong'.
- This honour acknowledges Boston’s trailblazing role confronting racism and the undervaluation of rugby league’s cultural impact, signalling hoped-for wider recognition for the sport and its figures.
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Total News Sources42
Leaning Left14Leaning Right3Center11Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Left
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left
50% Left
L 50%
C 39%
11%
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