BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Ian Francis, son of Roy Francis, has opened up about his father, the legendary player and coach who made history in rugby league.
Welshman Francis was the first black player to represent Great Britain and the first black coach in British professional sport. He was an innovator and a pioneer, and led Hull FC and Leeds Rhinos to championships and a Challenge Cup in the 1950s and 1960s.
Francis, who died in 1989, is the subject of the new book by Tony Collins titled Roy Francis: Rugby’s Forgotten Black Leader. Speaking at Headingley at a launch in June, Roy’s son Ian gave insight into his father who revolutionised the sport.
“He was everything I wanted to be,” Ian said.
“He was a superb athlete. He was very funny, he was good to be around, he was a joker. But also he was very focused. He got the job done and he was a font of knowledge for me.
“Anything I wanted I used to go to him, and ask him, and he had the answer for me. He was everything to me. He went into everything 100 and one per cent.
Francis faced racism throughout his life and his career and the colour of his skin saw him leave rugby union in Wales and join Wigan in rugby league. It also affected his brief tenure as the coach of the North Sydney Bears.
Ian says his father never spoke openly about the challenges and the discrimination he had to contend with.
“No. He was also very private, to the point of almost being secretive,” he said.
“We knew he had a lot of problems but he never discussed it with me or my brother. He might have done with my mother, I don’t know.
“He was different, and he knew it. He kept it to himself, and that was his undoing as he had two nervous breakdowns later on. He was his own person in every single way. He was a one-off, a complete one-off.”
Francis brought modern coaching methods into rugby league, with sprint coaching, diet plans, an emphasis on fitness and the use of psychology, and was decades ahead of his time. He also blazed a trail for the likes of Billy Boston and Ellery Hanley.
According to his son, Francis had “supreme confidence” but never boasted of what he had done.
“Not overtly, he wasn’t a bragging sort of man,” Ian said.
“He knew what he was capable of, he knew what he had to do, or wanted to do, and he just carried it out. He never bragged about his achievements. He just did his own thing.
“He had superb confidence in himself and his abilities, and he just went and did it. He didn’t want to talk about it particularly, he let his achievements speak for themselves.
“He was playful. He wanted everybody to have fun and he wanted to entertain and he entertained people on the field, but he also entertained off it.”
You can buy the book Roy Francis: Rugby’s Forgotten Black Leader here.