Debut: Vs Doncaster (H) 24th February 1962

Leeds Appearances: 288

Leeds Tries: 117

Leeds Goals: 52

Leeds Points: 455

Leeds Honours: Championship (Winner: 1969; Finalist 1970), Challenge Cup (Winner: 1968), League Leaders' Shield (Winner: 1966-67, 1967-68, 1968-69, 1969-70), Yorkshire Cup (Winner: 1968-69, 1970-71), Yorkshire League (Winner: 1966-67, 1967-68, 1968-69, 1969-70), BBC2 Floodlit Trophy (Winner: 1970-71)

Inducted into the Leeds Rugby Hall of Fame in 2022

Schooled at Low Road, and groomed for a time at Hunslet Boys' Club prior to joining Bison Sports, Michael Shoebottom was snapped up by Leeds in February 1962 after just one 'A' team trial. Within a matter of days the mettlesome 17-year-old scrum-half was marking his first team debut with a try and earning a special mention in the Yorkshire Post dispatches: "in the match against lowly Doncaster, Shoebottom reigned supreme round the scrum, tackled hard and sure, had the build to shake off tackles and pace off the mark to take him through the gaps he so readily exploited. His display was the one bright spot in a dull game." 

Over a period of nine years, he illumined the Headingley scene in a way that none of his contemporaries could match. 'Shoey' was the eighty-minute all-action man, a workaholic who rarely failed to communicate his zest for the game to the man on the terrace. What matter if it was snowing heavens high and freezing cold, here was a player who could quicken your pulse and warm the cockles of your heart in deep midwinter.

An all-round performer, equally resourceful at full-back or centre whenever circumstances demanded, it was from stand-off, in partnership with Barry Seabourne, that he was to provide mainspring drive and sizzling flashes of spontaneity as the Loiners carried all before them to finish as League Leaders and Yorkshire League Champions four years running. As for Finals, of the seven they contested between 1964 and 1970, he missed not one.

When it came to representative honours, he made only four appearances with Yorkshire and three with England at centre, stand-off and scrum-half. He even went one better at Test and World Cup level, his sterling display at full-back in the crucial third Test at Sydney in 1970 bearing the unmistakable hallmark of total commitment. As for Headingley folk, the raw apprentice emerged from the chrysalis of adventurous youth to temper enterprise with tactical awareness. A couple of daredevil touchdowns at Thrum Hall of all places, to shock Halifax in the 1964 Yorkshire Cup semi-final.

Four tries and nine goals in a midweek romp at Mount Pleasant in August 1966 saw his 30-point tally falling just one short of the Club record established by Lewis Jones at Odsal in 1956. Then there was the fabulous Semi-Final victory over Wigan at Station Road that opened the way to Watersplash Wembley, and then on to the Championship showdown with Castleford at Odsal in 1969.

Singled out for 'special attention' from the very first whistle, he battled on regardless, giving not an inch, yet ever quick to steal a yard; and when it came to the shoot-out in the final quarter, with the men in blue and amber still trailing, there was Mr Never-Say-Die heroically defying the odds as he careered upfield at breakneck pace with all guns blazing. Never was a winner's medal more richly deserved.

During the 1971 Championship semi-final for Leeds against Salford at Headingley, Shoebottom was involved in an accident that saw the Leeds man catch the boot of Colin Dixon on the head in the act of scoring. He never played again, but although he was paralysed for a time, he made a laborious recovery that enabled him to live something close to a normal life. 

He passed away in October 2002, but two decades later, he became the 22nd player to be inducted into Leeds' Hall of Fame.