Rugby League has always prided itself on being an inclusive sport, one where everyone is welcome. It is well documented that Hunslet were the first team to sign a black professional rugby player in 1912, US airman Lucius Banks came over from the United States and played 13 games for the Club over 2 seasons scoring 5 tries and 9 goals.
Another pioneer for the black community was Cec Thompson. Cec did not have an easy start to life. His father died before he was born and he spent his childhood in an orphanage. He faced daily racism and left school with no skills. But, as he later explained, it was rugby league which ‘would bail me out of a bottomless pit’.
Cec played 95 games for Hunslet and represented Great Britain against the Kiwis before transferring to high flying Workington, where he played 192 games including the 1958 Challenge Cup Final against Wigan.
When a recurring knee injury forced him to retire in 1961, with 294 games and 64 tries to his name, Cec decided to fill the gaps in his education. Funded by his day job, he embarked upon the challenge with the same enthusiasm he took to the rugby field. He enrolled in night school to complete his O-Levels. He joined music and operatic societies, an art club, and once he was ready, advanced to Huddersfield Technical College. In 1965, aged 39, Cec returned to Leeds to study economics at the University.
In The Glory of Their Times, a book about black pioneers in rugby league, Thompson described how his memories of being treated as a second-class citizen spurred him on to succeed.
He recalled that people would not sit next to him at the cinema or on the bus – yet he said no Hunslet player made mention of his colour and the team were “like siblings” to him.
Here at Hunslet we are rightly proud of the role we played in the remarkable story of a remarkable man.
