Maurice Lindsay's 'indelible mark' on rugby league

It is most common in sport for the stars to be players or coaches, but every 50 years or so a person comes along who makes an indelible mark on their favourite game without ever having crossed the white line.

They change the sport more than any player ever can, they of course make some enemies along the way, but they are remembered well after their involvement ends. Maurice Patrick Lindsay was certainly one of those (he had many nicknames, but we will stick to the one on his birth certificate!).

I first became aware of Maurice when my father, who played for Wigan in the 1960s and 1970s, became the second-team coach at Central Park. Maurice was one of the four directors of the club in the early 1980s, although clearly the most prominent and vocal.

He wasn't the one with the most money, but he was the one with the most charisma and he knew how to create interest in the team. He was a showman and a businessman in the early days of Wigan's rise from the second division and his time spent working as a bookmaker at horse and greyhound racing tracks had made him 'street smart'. He was quick between the ears, highly entertaining and not afraid to take a risk.

His name then became a word that could not be used in my house after he sacked my dad, who by 1986 had been promoted to the first-team position. Wigan had finished second in the table and missed out on winning the league to Halifax by one point, but Maurice had decided he and the club wanted more, and he made the move to bring in a new coach from Down Under.

I then jump forward two years at which point in time Wigan wished to sign me as a young player. I was 17 and keen to play for my hometown team, but my dad also has a presence so you can imagine the tension in the room