Stanley Gordon Owen (7 March 1932 – 12 September 2019) was a Welsh

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

, and 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 ...

footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s. He played club level rugby union (RU) for

Pontypridd RFC Pontypridd Rugby Football Club () is a rugby union team from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It competes in the Admiral Premiership and the WRU Premiership Cup, a trophy which they won for the 7th time in 2025. Their last league title ...

, and representative level rugby league (RL) for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, Other Nationalities and English League XIII, and at club level for

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staffor ...

, St. Helens,

Rochdale Hornets The Rochdale Hornets are a professional rugby league club from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, competing in the League 1, the third tier of European rugby league. The Rochdale Hornets are one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs tha ...

and

Blackpool Borough Blackpool Borough was a rugby league club based in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, that played in the Rugby Football League from 1954 until 1993. The club moved to Wigan in 1987 and was renamed Springfield Borough; to Chorley in 1988 and wa ...

, as a .

Background

Stan Owen was born in

Pontypridd Pontypridd ( , ), Colloquialism, colloquially referred to as ''Ponty'', is a town and a Community (Wales), community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, approximately 10 miles north west of Cardiff city centre. Geography Pontypridd comprises the ...

, Wales, and he died aged 90 in Wigan Infirmary.

Playing career

Owen signed for Leigh in November 1951 and in a 13-year stay at the club made 415 appearances for the club, second only in number of appearances for Leigh to Albert Worrall. He played for Leigh in the 4–15 defeat by St. Helens in the 1963–64 Lancashire Cup Final at Knowsley Road on Saturday 26 October 1963. In 1964 he transferred to St. Helens but after playing only 12 games for St. Helens he transferred to

for whom he made 95 appearances between 1964 and 1968 including Rochdale's 5–16 defeat by

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

in the

1965–66 Lancashire Cup 1965–66 was the fifty-third occasion on which the Lancashire Cup completion had been held. Warrington Wolves, Warrington won the trophy by beating Rochdale Hornets by the score of 16-5 The match was played at Knowsley Road, Eccleston, Merseys ...

Final at Knowsley Road, on Friday 29 October 1965. His final move was to join

in 1968 where he made 21 appearances before retiring from playing and became Borough's coach.

International honours

Stan Owen won a

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for

(RL) while at Leigh in 1958 against France, and represented Other Nationalities (RL) while at Rochdale Hornets, he played at , in the 2-19 defeat by St. Helens at

Knowsley Road Knowsley Road is a former football stadium in Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside. It was the home ground of St. Helens from 1890 until its closure in 2010. St Helens Town FC played their home fixtures at Knowsley Road from 2002 until 2010. For ...

, St. Helens on Wednesday 27 January 1965, to mark the switching-on of new

floodlight A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. It can provide functional area lighting for travel-ways, parking, entrances, work areas, and sporting venues to enable visibility adequate for safe task performance, ornament ...

s. Stan Owen also represented English League XIII (RL) playing at in the 19–8 victory over France at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

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 ...

on Wednesday 16 April 1958, and

(RL) while at Leigh in a non- Test match on Thursday 19 May 1955 against France 'B' at

Stade Marcel Saupin The Stade Marcel-Saupin is a sports complex in the city of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), France. It was opened in 1937 under the name Stade Malakoff, and was used primarily by Stade nantais université club for rugby union, then became the stadium ...

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

, and in a non-

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

match on Sunday 17 February 1963 against France at

Stadium Municipal Stadium de Toulouse, previously named Stadium Municipal, is the largest multi-purpose stadium in Toulouse, France. It is currently used mostly for football matches, mainly those of the Toulouse Football Club, as well as rugby matches for Stade ...

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

References

External links

Profile at saints.org.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Stanley 1932 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Welsh sportsmen Blackpool Borough coaches Blackpool Borough players Footballers who switched code Great Britain national rugby league team players Leigh Leopards captains Leigh Leopards players Other Nationalities rugby league team players Pontypridd RFC players Rochdale Hornets players Rugby league players from Pontypridd Rugby league props Rugby League XIII players Rugby union players from Pontypridd St Helens R.F.C. players Wales national rugby league team players Welsh rugby league players Welsh rugby union players