RL Benevolent Fund General Manager Steve Ball is stepping down from his role at a charity that continues to support some of the sport’s most vulnerable people.
AFTER enriching the sport in a wide range of capacities for half a century and more, Steve Ball MBE stepped away from the most important role of his rugby league career at the end of June when he retired as General Manager of the RL Benevolent Fund.
After 20 years heading up the charity that supports players who have suffered critical injuries on the field of play and the families of players who have died playing the game they love, the 68-year-old has decided the time is right to spend more time with his own family.
Not that the lifelong Hull Kingston Rovers supporter is abandoning the sport altogether: Ball, who was instrumental in the rebirth of Newcastle Thunder in 2024, will continue to work with the club and is planning to establish a new amateur rugby league club in the North East, not too far from his home in Hexham.
“Rugby league is in my blood, always has been and always will be,” he said. “I have so many happy memories and good friends from my time in the sport, going all the way back to my childhood in east Hull.
“My dad was a forklift truck driver and a passionate Hull KR fan. He took me to Craven Park and away matches on Saturday afternoons on special trains to clubs in Yorkshire. We had dinner out on Saturday which was always a special treat.”
Ball junior passed his 11-plus and after grammar school gained a teaching qualification at university that led to him teaching – and coaching rugby league – in schools in south Leeds.
“I had some great players play for me, including a nine-year-old Jason Robinson, whose phenomenal talent I take none of the credit for!” he said.
“I coached Hunslet representative junior teams, and it became a way of life for me. Occasionally I get stopped by big middle-aged blokes who say things like ‘Do you remember me, Mr Ball? I’m Big Barry?!”
Ball left teaching to work in financial services and enjoyed success very quickly, developing a knack for making money for his family and raising funds for others.
He was persuaded to become chairman of Batley at 28, where he helped turned around a club that was threatening to fall into terminal decline.
“We were bottom of the league, the ground was a mess and no-one in the town cared,” he recalled. “We redeveloped the stadium, built a new stand, put new roads into the ground and established the club at the heart of the community. That was a very special time for me.”
Ball left Batley to become chief executive at Hull FC, overseeing the construction of a new Threepenny Stand at The Boulevard, and then joined the board of directors at Leeds where, working in tandem with owner Paul Caddick, the club agreed plans with Yorkshire cricket club to develop Headingley into the magnificent dual-use stadium it is today.
In 2005, Ball left Leeds to fundraise for the Rugby League Foundation – a forerunner of RL Cares – and the RL Benevolent Fund, which had been established the year before following the spinal injury suffered by London Broncos teenager Matt King.
Over the course of the next 20 years, Ball would find himself at the heart of every tragedy endured by the sport, including the shooting of former Whitehaven player Garry Purdham, the death on the field of Keighley scrum-half Danny Jones and the serious injury suffered by Hull KR player Mose Masoe.
Just as importantly, Ball has delivered an outreach programme that has seen the RL Benevolent Fund make contact with players who had suffered life-changing injuries in previous decades.
“In the early days it was really difficult because we were finding people who were in dire straits: some of them were confined to a wheelchair living in houses that weren’t fit for purpose. Some had not had a proper bath or a shower for years,” said Ball.
“They were so grateful for the support we offered; it was hard not to be emotionally overwhelmed by the reaction we got. It was at that time that Tim (RL Benevolent Fund chairman Tim Adams MBE) and I came up with the philosophy that the charity will support these people for life.
“In those days, people did a lot of fundraising as soon as someone got seriously injured but 18 months later, they were often forgotten about, not because people didn’t care but because life moved on and there was always another crisis to focus their minds.
“Thankfully that’s no longer the case: the safety net of the RL Benevolent Fund is always there.”
Dealing with grief and meeting people in their darkest hour is a tough job, but one Ball has taken on with his eyes – and ears – wide open.
“I have struggled at times. It was more difficult for me 10 to 15 years ago than it is now but it’s still not easy,” he admitted. “It’s good having a different life away from the Benevolent Fund.
“That’s not just my family but all my friends, most of whom are connected in some way to rugby league.
“I have always gone in with the concept that I am here to help. I try to be very practical and pragmatic. I’m not there to console – at no time have I ever told someone ‘I know how you must feel’ because, thankfully, I don’t.
“All the families I have met have got a funny story about Steve Ball: sometimes funnier to them than funny to me! Often, they involve my love of biscuits, Fox’s in particular, but that might come from my time at Batley!
“People smile when they see me and that’s what kept me going. There have been some really touching moments.
“I have organised a few massive funerals, they’ve all gone well and at the end someone has just nodded to me to indicate I’ve done a good job. No words, just a nod but it says so much.
“I was asked recently what my greatest achievement is, and someone suggested it was being awarded the MBE in 2021 for services to rugby league charities.
“Of course, it was a great honour to be recognised by the Queen, but what makes me most proud is that despite the difficulties of the role I have stayed true to the pureness of my principles: kindness, care and consideration.
“I have always known the importance of just listening to people. I have been into people’s houses after a tragedy and the family has brought out all their photo albums: I sit there with them, go through the photos and listen to them relive their cherished memories. People need to be listened to.
“I’ve never led them to believe I can cure their ills or turn their lives around. I have endeavoured to encourage people to help themselves.
“Sometimes when people are in the darkest corner they look for direction and the best assistance is often stepping forward themselves.
“My biggest achievement is being there with people when they are in dark times and still being there when they emerge into the light.”
Perhaps the most significant legacy Ball leaves behind is the £1m-plus sitting in the RL Benevolent Fund’s bank account, a sum of money accrued by tireless fundraising by people from all walks of life, many of whom have done amazing things with supportive organisations like the Steve Prescott Foundation.
“The support of the ‘Prekkie Foundation’ has been fantastic. Steve understood what we were setting out to achieve: he got it,” added Ball.
“When we started there was nothing there. We had to raise money quickly because the need was so great.
“There’s always the potential for a massive tragedy being round the corner. There’s enough in the bank to provide the lifelong support that we have committed to.”
For the charity’s beneficiaries who are living with spinal injuries, those funds could provide the means to a transformative end if, and when, advances in medical science make corrective surgery.
“We want to help everyone who can be helped,” explained Ball. “A lot of the people who have suffered spinal injuries are kept going by the hope that one day there will be a scientific breakthrough.
“We’re seeing advances all the time with things like stem cell research and when that breakthrough comes the Benevolent Fund will be in a good place to make sure these very special people are taken care of.”
News of Ball’s retirement was shared with the Benevolent Fund’s beneficiaries at Wembley at their traditional get-together for the Challenge Cup Final, a day that would prove to be even more special for a man whose roots to the east of the River Hull are revealed each time he says words like five, nine and purple curtains.
“Rovers winning at Wembley in the month I retire was just the best thing,” said Ball. “I’ve known Hull KR’s chairman Neil Hudgell for over 30 years, and I was really pleased for him.
“Back in 1995 I was chief executive at Hull FC and he was main sponsor at Hull KR at a time when there was a push for the clubs to merge and form Hull United.
“Neither of us wanted that, we recognised that with both clubs outside the top division we were vulnerable to what could have been an accident of time.
“After the game I sent Neil a message to say congratulations and told him my dad would be very proud of you.”
Just as Mr Ball Senior would have been so proud of his son, Stephen. Enjoy your retirement, Bally, rugby league and your many friends in the sport are going to miss you.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 510 (July 2025)