Mick Harrison RIP

It was with much sadness that the club learned this weekend of the passing of 1970s star Mick Harrison, aged 79.

Moustachioed and built like the proverbial outhouse, he signed from Hull FC at the start of the 1974-75 season for a fee of £10,000 and although he rarely said much, he was worth his weight in gold for a side crying out for a pack leader.

Tough as teak, he effectively replaced Terry Clawson and his team mates, especially the younger ones, loved him by their side in battle. No one took liberties when he was around, the apocryphal story abounding that at half time once, with Leeds trailing, coach Syd Hynes burst into the dressing room with the first period tackle stats, soon after it was becoming the norm to record them. Berating his side for a lacklustre 40 minutes and having lambasted the pack, he turned on Harrison and shouted at him, ‘You made only one tackle, why’s that?’ Sitting quietly and before he could muster a reply, one of his team mates piped up, ‘Would you run at him?’

His first season was curtailed by a serious arm injury but the year after he was voted the club’s ‘Player of the Year,’ not least for his ball winning ability in contested scrums, as well as his hardest yards up the middle. Seldom complaining but often suffering from back trouble, he quickly became a shining example of the grafting ethic and won all of the five finals he appeared in for Leeds, including the 1979 Premiership decider.

Capped for his country at the age of 20 in 1967 against France, unusually young in his position, having just broken through at the Boulevard, he gained seven caps in all whilst wearing black and white including facing the 1972 Kiwis and the Kangaroos the year after.

A knee injury ruled him out of the ’72 World Cup winning party – Clawson taking his place - although he received two England caps late in his career, appearing in wins over Wales and France in the 1978 European Championship.

A master of the unspectacular and supremely reliable, he returned to Hull for his swansong in 1982 to bring on their next generation of forwards, mentoring such as Lee Crooks, and made seven appearances, the most notable against the touring Kangaroo ‘Invincibles’ where he was at the forefront of a typically brutal clash, the Aussies’ toughest on their travels. In all, the archetypal enforcer made 528 career appearances and is a member of the Hull FC Hall of Fame.

On behalf of everyone connected to the club, we would like to send our deepest sympathies to Mick's family and friends at this sad time. Mick will be remembered before kick off of the Wetherby Whaler Festive Challenge on Boxing Day. Mick is pictured here, fifth from the left in the row, alongside his team mates in 1978.

Mick Harrison RIP