Leeds Rhinos & Hull FC mourn legendary forward who won Challenge Cup twice in outstanding career
Leeds Rhinos are mourning one of their greatest forwards, Mick Harrison, who played in two famous Challenge Cup final victories in the 1970s.
The Featherstone-born prop, who has died aged 79, was a Wembley winner when Leeds upset the odds against Widnes in 1977 and repeated the feat with a famous triumph over St Helens the following year. The victory against Widnes was the most emotional in the club’s history, coming just two weeks after scrum-half Chris Sanderson collapsed and died during Leeds’ final fixture of the league season, at Salford.
The following year, the Loiners trailed 10-0 after as many minutes, but hit back to win 14-12 in one of Wembley’s greatest games. During eight seasons at Leeds, Harrison, who joined them from Hull in 1974 for a £10,000 fee, played in five finals and was never on the losing side.
Among his teammates was current Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington, who described Harrison as “one of [coach] Syd Hynes’ shrewdest signings and a legend of what was a very special Leeds team”. He said: “He was a very formidable player, with both Hull and Leeds and Great Britain as well.
“He was a very quiet man and a lovely bloke. He was a very well-respected player and one of the toughest and strongest I ever played with; a no-nonsense prop-forward, solid as a rock and he had a remarkable career, playing more than 500 games.
“He was such a strong bloke, when he tackled opponents he used to effectively squeeze the life out of them - he’d squeeze their ribs and you could hear players yelp in agony. That was an unusual thing, players didn’t usually show their emotions, but when he tackled them, they knew they’d been tackled.”
Harrison played in an era of contested scrums and Hetherington added: “He was really good with me when I came to the club just after they’d won the Cup for the second time. They bought me effectively to be David Ward’s understudy, but Wardy never got injured so most of my games were in the back-row or coming off the bench.
“I didn’t play that often at hooker, but when I did I packed down with Mick and Stevie Pitchford at the other side. Those were the days when hookers had to get the ball in the scrum and Mick was such a commanding figure, such a dominant open-side front-row forward, he was very helpful for me. He was like a rock.”
Harrison made the first of seven Great Britain appearances 1967, when he was aged 20 and also earned five Yorkshire caps and two for England. He was a Yorkshire Cup winner with Hull in 1969 and spent nine seasons with the black and whites before his move to Leeds.
Leeds’ player of the year in 1975-76, he starred in their 1979 Premiership Final defeat of Bradford Northern as well as Yorkshire Cup triumphs over Hull KR in 1975 and 1980. He returned to Hull in November, 1982 and played his final game the following January, ending a career which included 528 games at club level.