Photo: Canterbury Rugby LeagueThe Canterbury Rugby League community is mourning the loss of Bill Whitehead QSM, who passed away on Friday, aged 89. Whitehead has been described as the most decorated man in New Zealand rugby league, and made a colossal contribution to the game in Canterbury and nationally. “We didn’t have schoolboy rugby league on the Coast, but I played rugby union in Nelson after we shifted there in 1947,” Whitehead recalled in a 2015 interview. “I was chatting away to (Reeves), and he said: ‘Another rugby league man’ – he’d just given (a QSM) to Johnny Lloyd, my old mate from Hornby. I’ll always appreciate my involvement with schoolboy football, and that’s where the great players come from.”Canterbury Rugby League extended its sympathies to ‘Rugby League Bill’s’ family and friends.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 17, 2021 22:52 UTC