Joe Egan is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 former rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 footballer and coach. He played for Wigan

Wigan Warriors

Wigan Warriors is an English rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club's first team squad competes in the engage Super League and the team are the current Challenge Cup holders as of the 27th August 2011....

 from 1938 to 1950. In the 1948 Challenge Cup

Challenge Cup

The Challenge Cup is a knockout cup competition for rugby league clubs organised by the Rugby Football League. Originally it was contested only by British teams but in recent years has been expanded to allow teams from France and Russia to take part....

 final Wigan defeated Bradford Northern

Bradford Bulls

Bradford Bulls is a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. They play in the European Super League and are currently joint 10th in the league....

 8-3 and Egan was the first captain to receive the trophy from a reigning monarch, King George VI. He was a member of the 1946 Indomitable tour to Australia, and later became the oldest surviving member. He also won two Championships with Wigan, in 1946 and 1947. He accompanied the English test team as hooker on their tour of Australia in 1946 and 1948. He retired with the most appearances of any player for the England national team

England national rugby league team

The England national rugby league team represent England in international rugby league football tournaments. The team has now seen a revival, having largely formed from the Great Britain team, who also represented Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The team is run under the auspices of the Rugby Football...

 with 21.

Also playing for Leigh

Leigh Centurions

Leigh Centurions is an English professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester who play in the Co-operative Championship.The club was founded in 1878 as Leigh Rugby Football Club and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in...

, he later became coach of Wigan, taking them to championship success in the 1959–60 season and Challenge Cup finals in 1958, '59 and '61.

He is an inductee of Wigan's Hall of Fame.

Other notable games

Joe Egan played for a Rugby League XIII against Northern Command XIII at Thrum Hall

Thrum Hall

Thrum Hall was a rugby league stadium on Hanson Lane in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It was the home of Halifax RLFC.-Stadium:The site, measuring 55,000 square yards and included a cricket pitch, greyhound track and bowling greens...

, Halifax

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...

on Saturday 21 March 1942.

External links

• Joe Egan at rugbyleagueproject.org