Salford Red Devils double Championship winner from the 1970’s, Chris Hesketh is the fourth name on the ‘Willows Wall’ Heritage Team after narrowly edging out 1938 Challenge Cup winner Gus Risman.
Hesketh made a mammoth 443 appearances for Salford scoring 128 tries adding up to 384 points. He joined Salford from hometown club Wigan for £4,000 and would play his first Salford game against his former side.
The legendary centre featured in the 1969 Challenge Cup final defeat to Castleford but would enjoy success with the Red Devils in the 1970’s as he was a part of the Championship winning sides of 1974 and 1976.
Hesketh also won a Lancashire Cup winners medal and a Floodlit Trophy medal in his time with Salford. He proudly captained the side from 1974 until his final game on May 13th, 1979 at St Helens.
The former international was awarded in the 1976 New Years Honours list when he was handed an M.B.E. Hesketh’s story is all that more remarkable as he contracted polio at the age of seven and spent twelve months in hospital.
The voting results in full are as follows:
Chris Hesketh – 38.20%
Gus Risman – 37.58%
Peter Williams – 10.56%
Nathan McAvoy – 9.32%
Kris Tassell – 2.17%
David Stephenson – 1.55%
James Lomas – 0.62%
Emlyn Jenkins – 0.00%
Bob Brown – 0.00%
John Cheshire – 0.00%
If you’d like to get your names alongside a host of Salford Red Devils legends contact John.Blackburn@Salfordreddevils.net and get your name on the ‘Willows Wall’ for £25.
