From classroom to community champion: Retired Leeds teacher brings hidden sporting treasures back to life
After 37 years teaching in Leeds schools, Steve Boothroyd could have been forgiven for putting his feet up in retirement.
Instead, he signed up for another chapter of service, this time preserving and sharing the city’s rich sporting past.
Since 2022, the former Lawnswood teacher has been a volunteer with Leeds Museums and Galleries’ Sporting Heritage Project, an initiative celebrating the people, places and moments that have shaped sport across the city.
Steve said: “I've been involved with heritage stuff with rugby league and this just looked like something to widen the interest. I really enjoyed being part of it.”
While rugby league has long been his main passion, with nearly 50 years’ involvement in schools rugby league as a coach, referee and administrator, the museum project gave him the chance to look beyond one sport and work with a much broader team.
He said; “On the sporting heritage project, there was a mixture of genders and ages, from students to retired people like me. So it was great to mix with different people and professionals from the museum. I learned a few things from them, really.”
The project, which culminated just before Christmas with a major display at Leeds City Museum, saw volunteers collect artefacts, commission murals across Leeds and help create short films highlighting lesser-known sporting stories.
For Steve, one of the most eye-opening aspects was stepping inside the museum’s Discovery Centre.
He said: “It’s just like a massive big warehouse, for want of a better word, of loads and loads of artefacts to do with any sort of topic that you can imagine.”
Among them were countless sporting objects, many of which had rarely, if ever, been displayed.
“There’s a limit to how many of these you can display in a museum,” Steve explained.
“So our idea was to get some of these out into the community.”
And that is exactly what the team did.
Volunteers packed up boxes of sporting artefacts and took them to markets, care homes, community venues and even major sporting events, inviting people to get up close to pieces of Leeds’ past.
Steve said: “We took some into public places, like the market and the playhouse and a couple of care homes and community places. Basically, again, just to get the word out about sporting Leeds.”
One of the most eye-catching items was “a big old boxing belt”.
Steve said: “There was no kind of engraving on it to say what it was, to say where it had come from. And the only thing we could find out from it was a silver hallmark, to show you when and where it would have been made.”
Heavy and ornate, it drew people in immediately. Another popular talking point was a pair of 1970s rugby boots, still bearing their original price tag.
“A lot of people said, ‘Oh yeah, we used to have rugby boots like that when we were young.’ Big, big sort of sides covering the ankles, whereas nowadays rugby players play in pretty much like slippers, with studs on,” said Steve.
For Steve, those moments of recognition were the heart of the project.
“It was interesting chatting to people. We picked up one or two stories,” he said.
While much of his previous heritage work had been research-based - compiling records, tracing players and even writing his own book, The History of Schools Rugby League in Leeds - this project allowed him to see how objects can tell stories in a different way.
He said: “I've learned how to do displays in museums and what sort of things people might be interested in. It’s just good… working with different people.
“For 37 years, it was only working with teachers or people in education.
“Most of the heritage work has been old guys like myself, who've retired and got a bit more time.
“But this project has had, you know, lots of different voices, lots of different experiences and opinions.”
Although the funded Sporting Heritage Project has now come to an end, its impact, in murals, films and the knowledge shared, will last far longer.
For Steve, volunteering has been about more than nostalgia.
It has been about widening access to the city’s story and ensuring that Leeds’ sporting achievements, across all disciplines, are recognised.
By helping to take objects into the community, he has helped to ensure that heritage is living, shared and celebrated.
And in doing so, he has once again taken on a teacher’s role - this time, not in a classroom, but across the city he has served all his life.
• The store at Leeds Discovery Centre is one of the few museum collection facilities in the country that opens its doors to the public. Visits are available through group bookings, school sessions and special holiday tours.
The Yorkshire Evening Post teaming up with partners across the city -led by Leeds-based heritage consultancy Wafer Hadley - to help shape and develop a new heritage framework for Leeds.
As part of a special series of reports shining the spotlight on our city’s very own Heritage Heroes. We’re showcasing those people in the heart of our communities across the city who preserves, champions and inspires others to ensure each place’s story continues to be known, understood and cherished.
To nominate a group or individual to feature in this series email [email protected] to feature.