Profile

Originally from the village of Helperby, near Easingwold in the Yorkshire Dales, Jack Scaife came to Oldham from Bradford Northern in 1926, making his debut in the away victory (15 – 9) over Rochdale on October 16th.

A most consistent hooker, he would make the Oldham No 9 shirt his own for the next seven and a half years. This would include winners medals for Jack in the 1927 Challenge Cup victory over Swinton and the 1933 Lancashire Cup Final success against St Helens Recs. This was an era of incessant scrimmaging with the hooker’s job a demanding cycle of packing down, in a seemingly never ending sequence of scrums.
A legacy of this workload was that Jack would not often make an impression on the score sheet, registering only seven tries in well over 300 games for the club.

Jack played his last game for the club at Barrow on November 10th, 1934. After his retirement he put his considerable experience to good use by becoming a first class referee.