this is one for the older fans, an american football player was shown getting a touchdown on tv by jumping over the defender. now i seem to recollect my dad telling me of a wigan player who did this way back in time.
can anyone cast any light onto who it was, or was it just a myth?

my dad used to tell me billy b did this but not heard anyone else say so

Might have been Nick Du Toit

I think the player your Dad is talking about was Attie Van Heerden,a South African winger who signed for Wigan in 1923.
His background was follows,he represented South Africa in the 1920 Olympics in the 400 metre hurdles (hence the reputation for Hurdling players) he then represented S/A at Union before signing for Wigan as a winger.
I first started watching Wigan in 1954 and I remember the older fans talking about him and his hurdling prowess.

A little more information about Van Heerden,he played in a Cup Final for Wigan against Oldham at Rochdale in 1923/24.
Over the years people have told the story of him diving between the legs of a Police Horse to score a try,the horse was stood on the try line trying to control the very large crowd.
Below is an extract of the incedent told in Wiki.

"Attie van Heerden's try was scored between the posts behind a police horse that was on the field of play attempting to keep the 41,831 crowd at bay."

Quote ="Fujiman"my dad used to tell me billy b did this but not heard anyone else say so'" When he said Billy B, did he mean Billy Batten? He was probably the most famous exponent of jumping over an opponent whilst playing for Hull FC in the era around the time of the first world war. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Batten

Quote ="Fujiman"my dad used to tell me billy b did this but not heard anyone else say so'" When he said Billy B, did he mean Billy Batten? He was probably the most famous exponent of jumping over an opponent whilst playing for Hull FC in the era around the time of the first world war. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Batten

Didn't Kelvin Skerrett once do this into a fight? Seem to remember him gracefully flying over a brawl right into the middle swinging!

Our Kelvin did'nt do gracefull.

Eric Batten, Bradford Northern

Son of Billy, who taught him all he knew.

it certainly couldnt have been billy boston, cos hurdling was banned before billy was playing.

Nick Du Toit definitely did it (diving over the heads of the defenders, almost identical to the NFL player) in a Challenge Cup game at Workington Town (the one that was played at Workington Reds football ground).

Yes my Dad tells me there where two South Africans who came to play at that time. Van Rooyen and Van Heerden. I think it was Van Heerden who used to leap over players.

It would be classed as dangerous play today.

Last I heard Kel had a pub over in Yarkshire. I bet he threw some out 'gracefully' !

Tommy Sale playing for Leigh was famous for doing this, I dont know of anyone else who did this on a regular basis.

Van Heeden was the one at Wigan, 1920's he was an olympic hurdler and used the skill and pace to score long range tries. He apparently scored one of the best tries ever at Central park!! full length beating eight men, it was one of four in that game which came the week after his most famous one in the cup final. He was reguarded as one of the first Wigan imported super stars over 6ft and 13 n half stone.

what the OP has neglected to say , is that the american footballer didnt HURDLE over the corner back , he SOMERSAULTED over him and landed on his feet in the end zone.....TOUCHDOWN.

and the defender was standing up, all of 6foot + of him

never seen a rugby player do a somersault in a match

if you want to watch it type in.....Jerome Simpson Front Flip Touchdown...on the usual video site

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/america ... 346855.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/america ... 346855.stm

With people being smaller in general back then I often wonder how well I'd fare if I could travel back in time and play back then.

The yanks were never too good at tackling. IIRC we had a couple of US gridiron players came to Wigan in the 1950s. They were woeful. Lasted a couple of games between them. They soon went back home.

Chuck Wiseman in the 60's.

Thought the Ben Barba and David Mead's tries this year were amazing but the NFL player was unbelievable.

I watched a union game (I think) a few years back and a player took the ball as first reciever behind the scrum and ran up and over the top of it!

That would've been the United Kingdom in Methley which is between Leeds and Cas. He converted it into flats quite a number of years ago though IIRC.