Fifty years after his career was ended by a sickening incident, St Helens half-back Tony Atherton is proud to be a member of the Rugby League Benevolent Fund family.
WHEN Tony Atherton made his first team debut for St Helens in March 1974, it seemed life could not get much better.
Pulling on the famous red vee jersey of his hometown club and stepping out onto the Knowsley Road pitch to face Castleford felt very special, not least considering the result: a 25-5 victory.
Having enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks at Saints – Colts, B team, A team and then first team – Atherton looked to be on the verge of a stellar career.
But fate, as so often happens, had other ideas and just a week later the speedy half-back’s life was turned upside down by a sickening incident in an A team match against Leigh.
“I’d only gone along to watch and had deliberately arrived late for the kick-off,” recalled Atherton (pictured above right, with Steve Ball of the Benevolent Fund). “My mate, Alan Gwilliam had told me that first teamers should never get there early because you might get called upon, so I got there at 3.15 only to find the kick-off had been delayed from 3 til 3.30.
“That was it. They collared me and asked me to do just 20 minutes, which I was happy to do. I was in the first team squad the next day and thought it couldn’t hurt.
“The A team had played Leigh the week before as well and I’d watched them then: they were vicious, there’s no other word for it. But that’s how the game was back then.
“Anyway, once I’d been collared I was a marked man. They had an Aussie playing for them and he was after me.”
Midway through the game, Atherton was tackled and while prone on the floor Leigh’s Australian forward kicked him in the side of the head, smashing his skull along the temple and prompting an all-in brawl.
The consequences for Atherton were far more serious: fortunately, an ambulance was at the ground to rush him straight to hospital where doctors immediately summoned his family and warned them to expect the worst.
“I had no idea how bad it was, in fact I didn’t know what was going on. One moment I was playing rugby and the next time I opened my eyes I was in a hospital bed with the family all around me,” he said.
Atherton had undergone a four-hour operation to relieve the pressure on his brain but with no sign of the swelling going down, his parents called in their local priest to administer the last rites on two occasions.
By the time he did come round, his attacker had fled the country and returned to Australia, and Atherton was left to come to terms with permanent disability.
“I’d lost my voice, had no sight in one eye and couldn’t walk or even move much. It was a very scary time,” he said.
“There wasn’t much help from anyone at the time, especially from the RFL. Local pubs and clubs did some fundraising and there was also an insurance policy but the insurers wanted to keep any donations that came in. My family were in uproar but in the end I got to keep everything.”
“Everything” amounted to a little over £3,000 for a young man who could no longer run his thriving electrical business or even drive the precious Mini van that he’d bought just six months earlier.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do but then, out of the blue, came a job offer from Pilkingtons. My two brothers both worked at the glassworks and they’d written a letter to Sir Harry Pilkington explaining my situation,” he said.
“I was lucky that way. I could never thank my brothers enough for that.”
Atherton spent over 30 years working at Pilkingtons and continued to live in St Helens, where the circumstances of his injury largely became lost in time beyond his circle of friends and former team-mates.
And then a chance conversation put Atherton on the radar of the then recently-formed Rugby League Benevolent Fund, a charity established in the aftermath of a devastating spinal injury suffered by London Broncos player Matt King.
Since making contact with Atherton, the Benevolent Fund has welcomed him and his wife, Margaret into their very special family, offering support and practical help, as well as introducing him to a new circle of friends.
Tony was also guest of honour at the annual RFL President’s Ball in 2020, when over 400 guests were moved not just by his story but his overwhelming positivity.
“Steve Ball from the Benevolent Fund has been absolutely brilliant and the day he came knocking on my door is one I will never forget,” he said. “We get to go to Challenge Cup finals, Super League Grand Finals and other events and meet lots of amazing people.
“It’s very humbling to be in the company of other players who have gone through what I’ve gone through and more. I sit and chat with lads who are still paralysed from the waist down from playing at amateur level and I think how lucky I’ve been.”
Luck, in this case, is very subjective: Tony still has issues with his balance and mobility, is registered blind and suffers from epilepsy.
One area in which the Benevolent Fund has been able to offer practical help is by modifying the bathroom at Tony’s home in St Helens, so it is now better equipped to meet his needs. The charity has also supplied a laptop for Tony and Margaret to help keep them connected to friends and family.
The RL Benevolent Fund provides lifelong support to all players who experience life-changing injuries on the field of play: although it forms part of RL Cares, the charity is semi-autonomous for accounting purposes with its funds ring-fenced to protect some of the sport’s most vulnerable, and deserving, stakeholders. If you would like to support the RL Benevolent Fund, please consider making a donation to the charity’s Justgiving page: www.justgiving.com/rfluk
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 500 (September 2024)
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