Farewell, Danny Houghton: Why Hull FC legend retires a modern-day Super League great
Danny Houghton in action for Hull FC
Legendary hooker Danny Houghton made his 454th – and final – appearance of his stellar playing career as Hull FC went down to a 24-4 defeat to Catalans Dragons on Saturday.
The 35-year-old has hung up his boots following an astonishing playing career with his boyhood club in Super League.
And Houghton will go down as a modern-day legend of the highest order: here’s why.
Role model. It’s been – quite frankly – a disaster of a 2024 campaign for Hull, however, it has not been without a couple of positives. One of them being the plethora of youngsters who have got their chance in Super League this year.
And every single one of those young players can look at Houghton as inspiration, but also as someone that they can relate to because he was in their position 20 years ago.
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Let’s not forget to mention his playing ability. Houghton has been one of the hardest-working players in Super League for well over a decade, having won Super League’s Hit Man Award on SIX occasions for being the competition’s top tackler.
He is one of those leaders that wouldn’t ask his team-mates to do anything that he wouldn’t be prepared to do himself. He led from the front during Hull’s highs and lows.
Honest. Houghton has never been someone to shy away from facing up and saying things how they are – something which may often get overlooked or go unnoticed, but that goes along way as a leader in sport.
Man of Steel. 2016 was undoubtedly Houghton’s best year of his career. He won helped the Black and Whites in the first of back-to-back Challenge Cups at Wembley before being named the Steve Prescott Man of Steel winner later that year as well as being named in the Super League Dream Team for the first and only time.
Tackle 52. It’d be impossible to write this tribute to Houghton without mentioning Tackle 52. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Hull fan or not, you will always remember his heroic effort to deny Warrington’s Ben Currie a try in the 2016 Challenge Cup final. It’s probably the most famous tackle of the modern era. It went down in Hull FC folklore that day: and it will never – ever – be forgotten.
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Best player to never play for England? Quite possibly. The Hull-born number nine made three appearances for England Knights between 2011 and 2012 but never quite made it into England’s senior side, being behind St Helens icon James Roby and NRL stalwart Josh Hodgson in the pecking order.
Houghton was even eligible to represent Scotland via his family heritage, but turned down the opportunity to play for the Bravehearts in the hope of being called-up for birth nation England. He was part of an England camp in 2017 as part of the team’s preparations for the upcoming World Cup, but he never got his hands on a cap. There’s plenty of top players who have never managed to play for England, but Houghton might just be the best of the bunch. It’s not often a Man of Steel is an uncapped international!
But make no mistake about it, Houghton bows out of Super League as a bonafide Hull FC legend following a Mint playing career (see what we did there? Yep, we’ll get our coat).
It was an emotional final appearance Houghton, with tears strolling down his cheeks as he did a lap of the pitch to thank the Hull faithful for one last time on Saturday.
A helluva player and a helluva career. Thanks for the memories, Danny.
