He was Steve Smith in the 1991/92 season and it was reasonably well supported until the fiasco of a benefit match at Easter but more of that later.
Smith was one of the most loyal servants a club could wish for but there must have been times when he wanted to move on.
He was affectionately known as "Soothill" by the members of the backroom staff after the part of Batley that he lived in and yet arrived at Thrum Hall by a circuitous route.
Having been rejected by his hometown club, Smith found himself playing in the Keighley colts team for some strange reason in the early 1980's.
But when they didn't have the numbers for a team of their own they merged with Halifax - Paul Moses was another lad who found himself at Thrum Hall in the same circumstances.
He was one of a traditionally large band of players from the Heavy Woollen area to play at the club along with brother Keith.
Smith moved through the ranks in a time of a big player turnover for the club and eventually broke into the first team and won the Player of the Season award in 1983/84 as the yo-yo club swept to another promotion.
Just as Chris Anderson moved in to take charge as coach from Colin Dixon though, Smith broke his ankle.
And he then saw Anderson sign Scratchin' Shed folk heroes Joe Kilroy and Graham Eadie to effectively deny him any chance of playing fullback.
That meant nothing to Smith as he made the switch to wing effortlessly once fit and played 23 games in 1985/86 as the team won the league championship.
After that it was back into the wilderness though after Anderson signed Wilf George.
Winning the second Player of the Year award in 1987/88 was probably scant consolation for missing out on two Wembleys and even after Anderson's departure he only managed a handful of appearances in the 1988/89 relegation season with all the turmoil in the club at the time.
The 1989/90 saw John Dorahy and Mick Scott in charge and back in the side was Smith.
And in the following year's promotion side, he made 32 appearances including the final match of the season which was the Premiership Final at Old Trafford.
But back to that benefit season.
The commercial manager at the time had an American girlfriend and they persuaded Smithy that gridiron was the new black.
Before anyone knew it a match had been arranged against the professional team from Manchester which was to be half American football and half rugby league.
Gate guarantees were agreed and before we knew it the club were being sued for thousands after the whole thing turned out to be a non-event.
It was a sad end to those years of service.
Contrast that with Ben Beevers' match the year before. It was nearly called off because of fog yet 4,000 plus turned up. That's because Eadie and Anderson flew back especially for their old mate....