Club icons Jack Harrison VC MC, Arthur Bunting, Kirk Yeaman, and Gareth Ellis have been officially inducted into the Hull FC Hall of Fame this evening – the highest individual honour for a representative of the Black & Whites.
The quartet, all of whom have made significant and exceptional contributions to Hull FC during their respective spells at the club, were inducted in a special ceremony at the city’s Bonus Arena as part of the club’s Season Launch Dinner.
Yeaman and Ellis were present to accept their induction by current Hall of Fame member Lee Crooks, with stars of Hull FC past and present in attendance alongside club staff, supporters, and club partners to witness the memorable night.
Harrison’s induction was posthumously accepted by Lieutenant Colonel David Groce MBE, while Bunting’s induction was accepted by the former player and Chair of the Hull FC Ex-Players Association, Keith Tindall, who played under Bunting, reading a message on behalf of Arthur’s son, Paul.
Gareth Ellis is regarded as one of the club’s most successful captains of all-time, famously leading the Black & Whites to their back-to-back Challenge Cup Final victories in 2016 and 2017.
Hometown boy and one-club man Kirk Yeaman similarly is regarded as one of the club’s best players of the modern era – FC’s second highest appearance maker of the Super League era, his 17 year spell with the club saw him claim Challenge Cup triumphs in both 2005 and 2016, as well as multiple personal honours and records along the way.
Arthur Bunting has become the first coach to ever be named in the club’s Hall of Fame, having led the Airlie Birds through their greatest era during the late 1970s and 1980s. From the Invincibles season in 1978/79 to the Challenge Cup Final triumph in 1982, he presided over a spell of unprecedented success for Hull.
Over 100 years since his death, war hero Jack Harrison VC MC is the oldest inductee having made his club debut in 1912. A remarkable winger, and scorer of the winning try in the 1914 Challenge Cup Final, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross having sacrificed himself to save his platoon in Northern France in the First World War.
The club’s Hall of Fame was founded in 1992, with the first induction ceremony taking place in the same year – icons including Johnny Whiteley, Clive Sullivan and David Topliss were included in the initial induction of six players.
Further induction ceremonies followed in 1998, 2013, and 2015, with Richard Horne being the latest name to be added ahead of this evening’s event.
While several other names were considered for their own outstanding service to the club, the four inductees were unanimously selected by the club’s Hall of Fame panel, featuring:
- James Clark, Hull FC CEO
- Lee Crooks, Former Player & Hull FC Hall of Fame Member
- Keith Tindall, Former Player & Hull FC Ex-Players Association Chair
- Bill Dalton, Club Historian
Existing Hall of Fame members Paul Prendiville, Garry Schofield, Keith Boxall, Steve Norton, and Trevor Skerrett were all also in attendance at the event.
Find out more about our four latest inductees below, and their significant contribution to the club:
Jack Harrison VC MC
Hull-born winger John ‘Jack’ Harrison made 116 appearances for the club between 1912 and 1915, scoring a total of 106 tries including a club record 52 tries during the 1914/15 season – a record that still stands to this day as the most tries scored by a player in a single season.
Following his senior club debut in 1913, Harrison went on to create a formidable partnership with centre partner Billy Batten, and later went on to score the winning try in Hull’s first ever Challenge Cup Final success against Wakefield in April 1914.
Great Britain went to war with the Axis powers in August 1914, with Harrison joining the cadets in November of that year; his final Hull FC appearance came on Boxing Day, before being called up to serve as a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant and assigned to the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment (Hull Tradesmen) 6 Platoon on the 4th August 1916. Having headed to the front line, on the 25th February 1917 Jack led a patrol into no-man’s land and for his action, he was awarded the Military Cross (MC). He had managed to bring back a prisoner with him.
The Third Battle of the Scarpe in May 1917, ordering the capture of Oppy Wood, would see Harrison’s platoon take heavy losses. It was the actions of Harrison during the offensive that led to his Victoria Cross being awarded following his death; his platoon became pinned down by machine gun fire. Harrison went over the top on his own, silencing the machine gun – an action that saved many lives. His body was never found.
Arthur Bunting
The first inductee to the Hall of Fame to have never played for the club, Arthur Bunting is arguably the most successful coach in the club’s history. Guiding the club through their most successful and sustained period during the 1980s, Arthur is one of the longest serving coaches to have led the Black & Whites.
Winning a plethora of trophies through his tenure, Bunting began his time at the club overseeing the unprecedented feat of winning every League fixture during the 1978/79 season, before achieving the highest position ever attained by a promoted team the following season.
Perhaps Bunting’s greatest achievements were winning Hull’s first Challenge Cup in 68 years, beating Widnes at Elland Road in a replay, and winning the Rugby League Championship the year after – the last time the Black & Whites were Champions.
Following his retirement in 1985 Bunting remained an incredibly popular character amongst Hull fans until his passing in 2017
Kirk Yeaman
Kirk Yeaman made his professional debut for Hull FC in 2001, and enjoyed his first prolific try scoring season in 2004, notching 17 tries. He repeated the feat the following year, and in 2006, he performed even better by scoring 23 tries in 23 matches, helping Hull reach their first Grand Final in the Super League era. Yeaman had got a taste for success after lifting the Challenge Cup trophy with the Airlie Birds at the Millennium Stadium in 2005.
He became a staple of the Hull FC team, featuring at centre and becoming one of the finest players in that position across the division – so much so that he earned eight international caps for England and 3 caps for Great Britain. On top of his 176 tries, the third highest of all-time, he holds the record for the most tries scored in Derby matches against arch rivals Hull KR, with 17.
He retired after the 2016 season after helping Hull win the Challenge Cup trophy for a second time in his career. But such is his commitment to his boyhood club, he came out of retirement in FC’s hour of need in 2018 to play at Magic Weekend during an injury crisis.
Gareth Ellis
The first person to captain Hull FC to back-to-back Challenge Cup titles, Gareth Ellis is one of the most iconic players to pull on the Black & White jersey in the modern era. After great success at both Leeds and the West Tigers, Ellis arrived at Hull FC in 2013, almost crowning his maiden year with the Airlie Birds with a Challenge Cup title. But FC fell short in the Final against Wigan.
He lifted the famous trophy in 2016, though, captaining Hull to their first ever Wembley win, helping the Black & Whites defeat Warrington Wolves 12-10. 12 months later, he skippered FC to a second straight Challenge Cup title as they beat Wigan 18-14 under the iconic arch.
Despite calling time on his career at the end of 2017, he made a surprise return to the field in 2019 when he came out of retirement. He played on into the 2020 campaign before finally calling it a day, having accumulated over 500 career appearances, 127 of which came in a Hull shirt.
STORY SPONSOR
