Two more rugby league stalwarts have been given accolades in the King\u2019s Birthday Honours \u2013 with Wakefield Trinity legend Neil Fox being given a CBE and Wigan Warriors stalwart Chris Brookes earning an MBE.<\/p>\n
Rugby league has made headline news with the latest list of Honours that have been published on Friday, with Kevin Sinfield becoming only the second Sir in the sport\u2019s history after he was given a knighthood.<\/p>\n
However, they have been joined by two more well-known figures from the game after Fox and Brookes were also recognised \u2013 both for their services to the community.<\/p>\n
Wakefield legend Fox honoured<\/p>\n
Fox was previously made an MBE but rugby league\u2019s greatest-ever points scorer has had his honour upgraded to a CBE.<\/p>\n
RFL chair Nigel Wood said: \u201cIt is an honour to be able to celebrate Neil Fox\u2019s award of a CBE. Neil\u2019s astonishing feats, largely with the glorious Wakefield Trinity side of the 1960s, have stood the test of time in Rugby League. It is almost unimaginable today to think that Neil played more than 800 professional games. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNearly half-a-century after his glorious career drew to a close, still no one has yet got close to his\u00a0all-time scoring record of 6,220 points. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, it\u2019s hard to envisage it ever being surpassed. Amongst players of his generation, he was widely regarded as the finest of centres, both here and overseas. And later, when he moved into the forwards, he was still highly impactful, indeed scoring two tries against the Kangaroos for Bradford in 1978. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNeil, of course, is one of the three famous Fox brothers each of whom achieved great success in our sport. A prolific member of the famous Great Britain touring side that won the Ashes in 1962, it is wonderful to see Neil, at the age of 87, still attending games at his beloved Trinity and remaining such a significant part of that community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Brookes\u2019 services to league recognised<\/p>\n
Brookes is now the chair of Challenge Cup winners Wigan Warriors but had a long and distinguished career as chief medical officer for the Rugby Football League and the England national team.<\/p>\n
He was added to the RFL\u2019s roll of honour in 2023 and across a 30-year career in the sport, has earned a reputation as one of its finest servants.<\/p>\n
And those services have now been recognised nationally, with Brookes given an MBE.<\/p>\n
Wood said: \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0fitting\u00a0that\u00a0Professor\u00a0Chris Brookes\u00a0has\u00a0also\u00a0been honoured by the King\u00a0with an MBE\u00a0for his services to rugby league.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlong the way he has served with distinction, in his role as doctor at clubs such as\u00a0Salford,\u00a0Bradford Bulls and Wigan, but also on\u00a0the\u00a0international scene\u00a0where he\u00a0worked with the England national side for a long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe continued\u00a0his exemplary work\u00a0as the RFL\u2019s chief medical officer for 16 years, producing crucial\u00a0work in fields such as brain health\u00a0and player welfare\u00a0as well as steering the game through the pandemic,\u00a0before\u00a0stepping down\u00a0in 2023.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200bThe honours were made official on Friday night, after speculation on Thursday that Sinfield had earned a knighthood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two more rugby league stalwarts have been given accolades in the King\u2019s Birthday Honours \u2013 with Wakefield Trinity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-732756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}