Bruce Loyola Ryan (1921–2002) was an Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s.

Playing career

Ryan was a champion school-boy sprinter, before being graded at the Newtown in 1940. He went on to play six seasons for Newtown but his career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Australian Army and later the Royal Australian Air Force. While he played for the Jets he was part of the squad that won the 1943 Grand Final. He also played in the team that were defeated in the 1944 Grand Final. After retiring from Newtown at the end of the 1947 season, he travelled to England to join

Hull FC Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull F.C., is a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Hull play their home games at the MKM Stadium and compete in Super League, the t ...

for the 1947–48 season, where he was met by 4,000 fans waiting to greet him at Paragon Station. He went on to play for three seasons, scoring 60 tries in 84 games. Ryan transferred to

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

for a then world record fee of £4,750, where he played for two seasons, scoring 42 tries in 57 games.

Post playing

He later joined the coaching staff of

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

in 1956. Ryan died on 25 June 2002, 12 days before his 81st birthday.Sydney Morning Herald: Death Notice. 26/6/2002

References

1921 births 2002 deaths Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian rugby league players Hull F.C. players Leeds Rhinos players Australian expatriate rugby league players in England Newtown Jets players North Sydney Bears coaches Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league wingers 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1920s-stub