Herbert Goodfellow
English rugby league footballer (1916-1997)
Herbert Goodfellow (31 July 1916 – December 1997), also known by the nickname of "Goody", was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. He played at representative level for England and Yorkshire, and at club level for Wakefield Trinity (captain), Batley (World War II guest), Castleford (World War II guest) and Oldham, as a scrum-half.
Playing career
Trinity career
Herbert Goodfellow was born in Sharlston, West Riding of Yorkshire, after his junior days in Sharlston, Herbert signed for Trinity in 1932, as a 16-year-old after representing Yorkshire schoolboys in 1930. He started as a young 'skinny' winger in the A team before developing his scrum half skills and making his first team début on 3 March 1934 when Keighley visited Belle Vue. He stamped his authority on the game with two tries in a 17–0 win. In an added bonus, he outplayed the Keighley scrum half, Kiwi veteran Ted Spillane. At the time he was the fourth youngest player to play for Trinity (after Ernest Pollard, Harry Wilkinson and Mick Exley), but he is 19th in that list now.
He gradually developed into a strong scrum half with a powerful hand off, which assisted him in scoring over a hundred tries for the club. After breaking his leg in the first match of the season, he missed the entire 1935–36 season. Representative honours followed with appearances for Yorkshire, an RL XIII rep side and England in 1937 & 1939.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Herbert Goodfellow” as english rugby league footballer (1916-1997). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as english rugby league footballer (1916-1997). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5734230. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1916, 1997, 1932 and 1930.
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This entry incorporates text from “Herbert Goodfellow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.