Joe Warham is a 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...

 administrator and coach having served Leeds Rugby League Football Club (now Leeds Rhinos

Leeds Rhinos

Leeds Rhinos is an English professional rugby league football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The club won the 2011 Super League and became the most successful club in the Super League era, beating St Helens 32-16 on 8th October 2011. Formed in 1890, Leeds competes in Europe's Super League...

) for over forty years.

Following a playing career as a winger with Oldham

Oldham Roughyeds

Oldham Roughyeds is an English professional rugby league club based in Oldham, Greater Manchester. They currently play in the Championship One. Oldham is one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895....

 and Swinton

Swinton Lions

Swinton Lions is an English professional rugby league club from Swinton, Greater Manchester. The club has won the Championship six times and three Challenge Cups. They currently play in the Championship.-Early years:...

, and a spell coaching Rochdale

Rochdale Hornets

Rochdale Hornets RLFC is an English professional rugby league club from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. They currently play in Championship One...

, Joe went to Headingley

Headingley Stadium

Headingley Stadium is a sporting complex in the Leeds suburb of Headingley in West Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, rugby league team Leeds Rhinos and rugby union team Leeds Carnegie ....

 as coach in 1958. Under his stewardship, and assisted by Dai Prosser, in 1960/61 Leeds won their first-ever championship, beating Warrington 25-10 in the final at Odsal

Odsal

Odsal is a village in the metropolitan district of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated outside the village of Wibsey. Odsal's main attraction is Odsal Stadium which is the home of the four times Super League champions the Bradford Bulls...

.

Joe later moved to head up Leeds' scouting and recruiting efforts, signing many of the players who formed the backbone of Leeds' very successful late 1960s and 1970s side. As Roy Francis, coach in the mid-sixties, said later; "... with players that talented he had no need to coach or drill them - he sent them on to the pitch to play their natural game".

In 1969 Joe stepped up to coach Leeds again on an interim basis following Roy Francis' departure, and once again brought success, the club winning the championship for a second time.

In the seventies Joe served the club in a number of capacities, including scouting, organising players' testimonials and representing the club on various RL committees, before being made General Manager of the Company in 1980. His period of tenure saw a number of significant ground improvements at Headingley

Headingley

Headingley is a suburb of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road...

 - including, on the Test cricket

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

ground, the UK's first electronic cricket scoreboard. After leaving the board he served as president of Leeds' Taverners' Club and as President of Leeds' ex-players' association.