In the latest of our Hull FC Rugby League Icons features, Club Historian looks back at the career of Hall of Fame member Bill Drake.
William Desmond Drake was a true great for Hull FC and the twin brother of fellow Hall of Famer, Jim Drake.
As a young supporter first watching our great game some 56 years ago, my boyhood heroes were Johnny Whiteley, Bill Drake and, a little later, Arthur Keegan. I had the privilege only last year of compiling the series of articles in the club’s match day magazine which culminated in Bill Drake completing that little set by being induction into the Hull FC Hall of Fame.
Bill Drake, a Cumbrian by birth, followed his twin brother, Jim, from Heworth ARLFC to the Boulevard in late 1952. He made his debut on the right wing on 11th April 1953 in a 9-12 home defeat to Halifax.
He was signed initially as a winger. His early time at the club was spent on the ‘A’ team wing before his debut against the West Yorkshire side.
Two days later, he recorded his first two tries in a home win over Castleford. However, coach Roy Francis saw in Bill the potential for a successful second row forward, a position in which he became one of the most feared opponents in the game.
Francis felt he was ideal material for the type of forward pack then in creation by Francis. Hull’s pack could ‘run like backs and the backs would tackle like forwards’, thus creating a new dimension to forward play.
He became one of the legendary pack of forwards which was revolutionary in adopting the fast-running style virtually unknown at that time to rugby league and which laid the foundation of great success in the years to come.
His wing speed he utilised to good effect in the second row and became an accomplished ball-handler. His dummy was a trademark in which he actually passed the ball and brought it back into his possession, thus opening up defences to set up tries for himself and many for others.
Bill established himself in the second-row and he became only the third Hull forward to register a century of tries. Like Jim, he was ferocious in his play, but the hardness he doled out was not easily seen by spectators or referees alike!
In a career which was to last some 10 and a half years at the Boulevard, he clocked up 294 appearances for the club, scoring 101 tries and 53 goals. His feat of scoring a century of tries is shared by only two other forwards in the history of Hull FC – Johnny Whiteley and Bob Taylor.
At a time when the British game was well fixed for very talented back row forwards – Whiteley, Karalius and Turner, all loose forwards, regularly formed the back three for Great Britain – it seems that Bill could have considered himself to have been unlucky to have only received a single test honour, and that was after having moved up to prop in 1962.
He also represented his native Cumberland on 10 occasions, scoring one try.
In 1963, Bill followed Roy Francis to Leeds where he made 32 appearances, registering two tries and three goals. He wound up his career on home ground at York, playing for a couple of years, and clocking up 47 games (three tries and seven goals).
Bill died in Kingston-upon-Hull on October 8th, 2012, exactly four years to the day after the death of his brother, Jim.
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