First game 22/11/1952, Last game 29/05/1963, Played 282 Tries 135 Drop Goals 2 Points 409.

Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.

Jim Challinor was the “baby” of the brilliant Warrington team who completed the Challenge Cup and Championship Double in the 1953-54 season and he matured to become one of the finest centres in the club’s history.

And, once his playing days were over, he became one of the game’s top coaches. In 1972 alone, he guided St Helens to their Challenge Cup win over Leeds and Great Britain to their World Cup triumph in France.

He remained Great Britain coach for the 1974 tour of Australia and New Zealand and even played one game during the trip, because of an injury crisis, and scored a try. However, he picked up an injury during the match that resulted in him having a kidney removed. Tragically, two years later, in December 1976, he died of cancer aged just 42.

“When Jim was playing there were a lot of good centres around,” said Brian Bevan, “but he was right at the top all the time. He was an unselfish player, a great centre – one of the best Warrington have had.”

Bevan was talking from first-hand experience because he and Challinor were partners on Warrington’s right flank almost 200 times. Included in that total were three Championship Finals (1954, 1955 and 1961), the drawn 1954 Challenge Cup final at Wembley and the replay victory at Odsal and the 1959 Lancashire Cup final win over St Helens.

Challinor, who had been offered a trial with Manchester United, had joined Warrington from the Orford Tannery junior club in October 1952 and made his Wire debut as a raw teenager at home to St Helens the following month. Bevan was injured and Challinor, a strongly-built six-footer, played on the right wing.

Another key moment in his career arrived in January 1954 when Warrington signed Stan McCormick from St Helens and coach Ces Mountford decided to try Challinor as centre to Bevan. It was a great success and Mountford’s first-choice three-quarter line – Bevan, Challinor, Naughton, McCormick – is rated as one of the best the club have fielded.

Two and a half months later, Warrington had completed the Double and “Chall”, who was still only 19, had scored his 19^thtry of the season in the Challenge Cup final replay at Odsal in front of 102,569 supporters.

Challinor toured with Great Britain in 1958, playing in the famous second Test victory at Brisbane when prop-forward Alan Prescott, the Great Britain captain, carried on playing despite a broken right arm. He was also a member of the Great Britain squad who won the World Cup on home soil in 1960.

One of his finest performances for Warrington was yet to come, however, when he scored both Warrington tries in the 1961 Championship Final against Leeds, also at Odsal.

Challinor joined Barrow as player-coach in August 1963, breaking the last link to the glory days of 1953-54, but he was far from being a spent force and guided his new club to the Challenge Cup final against Featherstone Rovers in 1967 – the year he opened the Challinor Sports shop on Padgate Lane. He also captained the Barrow side who suffered a narrow 17-12 defeat.

During the 1968-69 season, Challinor played rugby union for the Altrincham Kersal club under the name Jim Pevitt (Pevitt was his middle name) until the rugby union authorities found out and he was banned because of his rugby league background.

This abhorrent practice, which was allowed to continue until rugby union also became professional in 1995, was made even more ridiculous by the fact that Challinor had played representative rugby union for the RAF at Twickenham during his national service.

Challinor coached St Helens from 1970 to 1974, leading them to the Championship in 1970-71 and the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy in 1971-72 as well as the Challenge Cup success in 1972 and an 11-7 victory over Australia in 1973.

In total, he earned three Great Britain caps and made two appearances for Lancashire.

Hall of Fame: Challinor, Dingsdale and Fraser