Lucius Banks, Jr. (May 1, 1886 – February 1955) was an American professional

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 ...

player who played in the 1910s. He played in England for Hunslet in Hunslet,

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 ...

in 1912 and, is thought to be the first black athlete to compete in

; the first American to play rugby league; and, according to the historian Tony Collins, "probably only the fourth black American to play professional football of any code".

Biography

Early life

Banks was born in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

in either 1885 or 1886 to Lucius Banks Sr. and Julia Webb Banks. The family moved to

Arlington, Massachusetts Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is six miles (10 km) northwest of Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, and its population was 46,308 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Europe ...

when he was still young. Banks served in the U.S. cavalry,Tony Collins,
Racial minorities in a marginalized sport: Race, discrimination and integration in British rugby league football
, ''Immigrants & Minorities Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora'', 17 (1998), 151-69 (p. 155), DOI: 10.1080/02619288.1998.9974933. recorded as a private in 1910 in the '' Army and Navy Register''. He was stationed at West Point, New York from 1908 to 1912, where he excelled in both cricket and American football.

Playing career

Banks was spotted playing as a

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

in New York by a one-time member of Hunslet's management committee, and the club bought him out of the army and brought him to the UK, apparently partly because the club thought an exotic player would boost revenue. The strategy seems to have worked, as 'his presence significantly swelled the attendance at his first game'. Local news reporting on Banks's first game in England included some prominent racist coverage, with a local evening paper running the headline 'Hunslet's Coloured Coon' and the '' Yorkshire Post'' suggesting that local players should have been hired instead and commenting that "if the club wanted to sign 'coloured' players they should go to South Africa, where there are reputed to be capable goal kickers with bare feet". Banks's performance seems to have been fairly successful: playing on the wing, he scored four tries during his first four games for the club, the first of which was on January 27, 1912, against

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

. He later moved to playing as , before returning to America following his last game with the club, on December 26, 1912. More recently, however, Banks has become a celebrated figure, seen as a pioneer in what has become a long history of black rugby league players.

Later life

Following his days in England, Banks served in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and saw active service in France. In 1919, he joined the Boston Police DepartmentBoston (Mass.). City Council,
Reports of proceedings
' (Boston: Municipal Print Office, 1950), p. 6. and worked as a police officer for 27 years. He was also a member of the Prince Hall Free & Accepted Masonic Lodge. He died in 1955 (when his age was listed as 68) and was survived by his wife, Maude, and son, Richard L. Banks.

References

External links

Blogpost containing photographs of BanksSearch for "Lucius Banks" at britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banks, Lucius 1886 births 1955 deaths 20th-century American military personnel American football quarterbacks American rugby league players Boston Police Department officers Date of death missing Hunslet F.C. (1883) players Rugby league players from Virginia Rugby league in Yorkshire United States Army soldiers