Hall of Fame - Brian Bevan : 1945-1962

Brian Bevan was born on the 24 June 1924 in Sydney, Australia. Bevan was recommended to Warrington in 1945, by former star Bill Shankland, after initially being rejected by Leeds!

He made his debut against Oldham, on 17 November 1945, as a replacement for the injured Albert Johnson, having scored a sensational try in the 'A' team the week before.

What followed were glorious memories as he re-wrote the record books with his try scoring. He was the clubs top try scorer in every season bar one for 16 campaigns, and scored a club record 7 tries in a match on two occasions, against Leigh in 1948 and Bramley in 1953.

Some say his greatest try scored was against Wigan in a pre-season friendly Wardonia Cup game in August 1948 at Central Park. Receiving the ball from a scrum five yards from the Warrington line, he took on and beat the Wigan star back line in a weaving diagonal line run towards the other corner, covering fully 125 yards in the process.

He helped the club with the Championship in 1947-48, 1953-54 and 1954-55, Challenge Cup in 1950 and 1954 and the Lancashire Cup in 1959, in which he scored a controversial match winning try.His final appearance was on Easter Monday 1962 at home to Leigh. He scored a try early on as Warrington won by 29-17 and an emotional farewell was given a guard of honour by both teams as he left the field, and then he waved goodbye to all his fans from the stands.

He went on to play a further two seasons with Blackpool Borough before calling it a day. In October 1988 the RFL instituted him into their Hall of Fame.

He died in June 1991, aged 66, and a month later at a ceremony at Wilderspool, the main stand was named after him. Without doubt the greatest ever Warrington player, so much so that the town in August 1993, honoured him with a statue near to the ground where he accomplished most of his feats. Brian Bevan made 620 appearances for Warrington and scored an incredible 740 tries, he kicked 34 goals, making his points total of 2,288 the second most for the Club.Brian Bevan made a remarkable contribution to the sport of rugby league scoring a world record 796 tries, 225 more tries than Billy Boston, who stands second on the all-time try scoring list.

The Wizard of Oz simply was the Greatest.