IT has been missing for more than half a century but the son of a York rugby league legend has made a last-ditch appeal to be reunited with a medal earned in the greatest game in the club’s history.

John Jordan hasn’t seen his father Johnny’s 1931 Challenge Cup final runners-up medal since it went missing shortly after his death in 1957.

Now 82, the Heworth resident is desperate to clap eyes on it once again before it is too late.

Jordan’s dad was part of the York RL squad that got all the way to Wembley 82 years ago, beating the likes of Huddersfield and Warrington before losing 22-8, in front of a crowd of 40,368, in the showpiece against Halifax.

It remains York’s only appearance in the final of rugby league’s premier cup competition and although a pulled muscle ruled Jordan senior out of the Halifax defeat, he earned a medal for his efforts throughout the competition.

When Jordan died in 1957, his grieving wife Elizabeth took the medal to show people at the Blue Bell pub, in Fossgate, and the family have not seen it since.

“He got his medal and my mother was really proud,” said Jordan junior. “When my dad died she took the medal into the Blue Bell. Someone asked if they could borrow it to show friends and relatives, and we have never seen it since.

“My mother was devastated never to get it back but what can you do? We still thought, at that time, that it might reappear but that never happened. We always thought that someone would bring it back.”

With the medal having been missing now for 56 years, Jordan realistically does not hold out much hope of ever seeing its safe return but he says he has to try and is urging York people to check their attics and under their floorboards.

“It’s nearly 60 years ago now, I am getting old myself and I would like to get it back to pass on to my own son, Christopher,” he added.

“The medal was a part of him. That was all my mother had of him and it was a beautiful thing to look at. If I could get it back it would be huge. It’s part of my family’s history and it would mean an awful lot.”

Anyone who thinks they may have the medal can bring it to The Press office in Walmgate or phone Steve Carroll on 01904 567261.


Fact file - Who was Johnny Jordan?

• Born in 1906, Johnny Jordan – christened Aloysius at birth – made his debut for York RL on October 25, 1930.

• He played 55 times for York, scoring ten tries, and 30 points in total. His final game for York was on March 14, 1934.

• In the club’s Challenge Cup run in 1931, he scored tries in York’s second round, third round and semi-final matches against Huddersfield, Salford and Warrington.

• Having been hopeful he would make the club’s Wembley date, Jordan missed the Challenge Cup final with a pulled muscle.

• At one time landlord of the Spread Eagle pub in Walmgate, Jordan was working for Rowntrees when he suffered the stroke that would eventually kill him in 1957.