IT is with deep sorrow that we report the passing of former Oldham centre Malcolm Price, a great player, a proud Welshman, a great guy and arguably the best player ever to leave the Principality to turn pro for Oldham.
He played only 23 games for Oldham after accidentally picking up a life-threatening pancreas injury at Rochdale which necessitated emergency surgery in Manchester and a long stay in hospital. There were fears he might never play again, but his perseverance paid off and he returned to rugby at Watersheddings before transferring to Hornets where he played for more than a decade as a classy centre whose stunning performances earned him a Great Britain call-up.
He thus became one of the few players to represent the UK at both Union and League, having won nine Union caps for Wales before selection for the British Lions at the age of 21. Born in Pontypool, and starring for that club, for Wales and for the British Lions, he was hotly pursued by Rugby League Clubs and eventually turned pro for Oldham during the 1961-62 season for a reported fee of £7,000.
“I think it was a world record at the time for a Union convert,”
said current Oldham vice-president and former chairman John Chadwick.
“The words ‘brilliant’ and ‘legendary’ are often over-used in sport, but Malc was indeed a wonderful centre whose Great Britain call-up was no surprise to those who knew him. But for his terrible injury in a Western Division game at the Athletic Grounds, while playing for Oldham, there is no telling what he might have achieved in Rugby League,”
writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
As it was, Malcolm became one of the best centres in Rugby League, starring for Rochdale for many years and earning a glowing tribute from Johnny Noon, another former Oldham centre and then coach at Rochdale, who said of Price:
“He was fast and stylish, one of the few centres in my era who was prepared to take on his opposite centre on the outside. With Alan Davies, I rate him as one of the two best centres I’ve ever seen.”
For the best part of 60 years, Malcolm was regarded as an outcast down in South Wales, but five years ago he and friends were invited to a big Welsh Rugby dinner in Cardiff when he was installed as a Welsh ‘great’ and all previous barriers were broken down. I know that meant more to him than anyone could ever imagine, We knew each other well back in the day when we were both leading officials at Littleborough ARLFC.
Aged 50-plus, he was still faster and fitter than most of the lads in the Littleborough team, as he loved to show when he trained and coached them. This was the guy who once said:
“Rugby is an ordinary game and in Wales we are ordinary men with no edge. We just play rugby, retire, and then watch rugby.”
He did more than that, not only serving as a very active and passionate member of the Rochdale Hornets Ex-Players’ Association, but working hard for the Littleborough lads, becoming curator of the Toad Lane museum in Rochdale (birthplace of the Co-operative movement) and starring as a local badminton player, winning the Rochdale individual men’s title when well into his 60s.
In his Oldham days, he ran a post office in the Buersil area of Rochdale, and he lived in Milnrow for more than 50 years.
This is indeed a sad day for both codes of rugby, for Oldham, Rochdale Hornets and Salford (his three rugby league clubs), and for Pontypool, his RU Club,
Our sincere condolences go to Malcolm’s family and friends with thanks to Tony Pratt and the Rochdale Ex-Players’ Association for their assistance in telling the Malcolm Price story.
