John Chadwick, Bill Quinn’s right-hand man, reports that former Oldham winger John Etty and his wife Kath, who lived in a bungalow in Fleetwood, have gone into a care home together in the Fylde area with a hint that John might not be seen much again at Roughyeds’ functions.
John, who starred in the great Oldham side of the 1950s and was on the wing when Oldham won the RL Championship at Odsal in 1957 with a 15-14 win against Hull, is now aged 97 and his wife is 98.
They’ve been married for 73 years and have been together for 75 years.
Said John Chadwick
“I went round to see him today to wish both of them a Happy Christmas and was told they no longer lived there as they had been moved into a care home. Lots of Oldham fans have been asking about John, who was a regular at Players’ Association dinners until a couple of years ago.”
John scored two tries for Oldham in that memorable 1957 final and in total, he scored 90 tries in 150 appearances, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
A Batley lad and proud of his time at Mount Pleasant, Watersheddings and later at Wakefield Trinity, John had a particularly memorable 1956=57 season. scoring a try in the Lancashire Cup final win over St Helens that season and then scored his brace in front of 62,000 fans in the Championship final at Odsal the following May.
In the same season he scored a total of 43 tries to establish a post-war Oldham record for tries in a season.
