We will always be in your debt, Mick
A L AST-MINUTE change to what was going to be written this week following the news Mick Murphy sadly passed away over the weekend.
For many years we have tried to have Mick as one of our monthly guests. He always said he would – when he was in England, and he didn’t know just when that would be.
We did manage to listen to some of his stories when he appeared alongside some of the European Cup-winning team at our reunion event in 2017.
I was also privileged to hear some while chatting with him in the Shoulder Of Mutton, where he frequented after watching Huddersfield’s union side at Lockwood.
For those who don’t know him, who is Mick Murphy?
He was born in Liverpool and became a prop-forward, playing union for Waterloo and League for Barrow, St Helens and Bradford Northern.
He was a prop-forward who could sprint 100 yards in 11 seconds.
After retiring from professional rugby, he continued – when in England – to play at Lockwood Park for the Extra C side until he was 60 - that made it 50 years of playing rugby.
Outside of rugby, Mick was an extremely clever man.
The degrees he earned helped him become a PE teacher and an oil magnate in the North Sea oilfields.
Eventually he returned to Huddersfield where he and his wife, Rose, opened Portland Nursery, the first of the chain.
As if life wasn’t full enough for Mick, he was also an actor. On television he appeared as the character ‘Ged’ in the