Debut: vs Wakefield Trinity (A) 30th March 1934

Leeds Appearances: 145

Leeds Tries: 61

Leeds Goals: 1

Leeds Points: 185

Leeds Honours: Challenge Cup (1936), Yorkshire League (1934-35, 1936-37, 1937-38), Yorkshire Cup (1934, 1935, 1937)

A Champion schoolboy sprinter of Yorkshire at thirteen, and a soccer star with Bradford City Boys, on leaving school Stanley Brogden was persuaded by his father to switch codes and try his hand at rugby with the Bradford Northern 14-16 team.

From the moment he was drafted into Northern's senior team in April 1927 for a game against Huddersfield, the 16-year-old was clearly destined for the highest honours in the game. Yorkshire called on him in November 1928 for the Roses match, and England followed the following March for the international versus Other Nationalities at Headingley. Selected just five months later for the extra Test 'decider' against Australia at Rochdale, he made the initial running for the only try of the match, scored by Stan Smith, and became an automatic choice for the 1932 Tour, during which he played in all six Tests (three at centre, three at standoff), and thrilled the Australian crowds in particular with his smooth, greased lightning bursts of blinding pace.

As for club honours, he was on the losing side in the 1930 Yorkshire Cup Final, absent from the corresponding Final a year later because of injury, and on the high seas with the Tourists at the time of the 1932 Championship Final, he still gave the claret-and-gold fans plenty to crow about, featuring prominently in both the 1930 Championship win over Leeds and the 1933 Wembley victory over Warrington, in addition to earning a Yorkshire League Championship medal in 1929-30.

Leeds supporters got a surprise on 30th March 1934 when they arrived at Belle Vue for the Good Friday match totally unaware that Stan had been signed only three hours earlier for a record-breaking fee of £1,200 and would be turning out against Trinity that very afternoon. He didn't fail to measure up to their immediate expectations, touching down for a debut try, and then running amok to score an Easter Tuesday hat-trick against Oldham at Headingley.

Able to slot in at centre, wing or standoff, he played in every single Final as the Loiners went from strength to strength. Meanwhile, at representative level he served Yorkshire, England and Great Britain equally well, going on the highly successful 1936 Tour, along with Jim Brough, Fred Harris and Stan Smith, and playing in all five Tests.

Of the many fine tries he scored for Leeds, two at Headingley must surely take pride of place. The first came in the second half of a game against York on 8th December 1934. A characteristic flash of searing pace, and he was clear of all save the full-back, with Eric Harris revving up in readiness. A classic dummy, bought by full-back Dings dale as well as thousands of suckers on the terraces and he was heading for the posts in high glee.

The second, against the Australians on 1st December 1937, was a long-distance thriller from inside his own '25'. A touch on the accelerator to round winger Hazelton with nonchalant ease, a check, followed by a swerve, to escape the brutal clutches of a desperate do-or-die cover and full-back Ward was left for dead in no-man's land.

Transferred to Hull in August 1938, before the Yorkshire Cup register closed and therefore eligible to play in the Final against Huddersfield, Stan subsequently saw service with Rochdale Hornets, Salford and Whitehaven before finally hanging up his boots.

A Powder hall sprinter, capable of breaking 11 seconds for the 100 yards when turned forty years of age, it was a rare treat for the Headingley fans to see him once again speeding down the North Stand touchline in 1953 and comfortably holding off the challenge of 'Drew' Turnbull and others in a yards-for-years sprint specially arranged for the joint John Feather- Arthur Staniland benefit evening.

Employed for many years as a dyer's operative in the textile trade, at one time he entertained high hopes of his two sons making names for themselves, the younger one being on Arsenal's books for a spell as an amateur, the elder having trials at Headingley.