Born in Llanharan on 20 March, 1932, he was a magnificent sporting all-rounder who learned his rugby at Cowbridge Grammar School, where the headmaster was the former Wales centre Idwal Rees. He won a Wales Schools cricket cap as a fast bowler, was in the Welsh Army Cadets rugby team and won the Welsh AAA senior javelin title.
He won six caps for Wales while playing for Newport before opting to switch to rugby league with Halifax on 17 October, 1956. His signing was broadcast live on BBC TV and he pocketed a sum of around £5,000.
Having started life as a hooker at school, he was soon turned into a full back and made a rapid rise once he joined the senior ranks. He played for his home town team of Llanharan, Maesteg, Cardiff Athletic and then Newport.
He made his Newport debut in a win over the Barbarians at Easter 1954 and went on to play a further 31 matches before heading north. After National Service he trained as a teacher at Carnegie College and when he joined Halifax they also found him a job.
His Wales debut was delayed after a freak accident forced him to pull out of the side to face England in 1955. At a training run at the Glamorgan Wanderers ground in Ely on the day before the game in Cardiff on 22 January, Owen went into some brambles to retrieve a ball and bumped into a tree that cut his knee so badly he emerged covered in blood.
Alan Edwards, the Ebbw Vale full back, stood in for the 22-year-old Owen and became an instant hero as he kicked the only points in a 3-0 win over England in Cardiff. Edwards retained his place for the 14-8 defeat in Scotland before Owen finally made his debut in the third round of matches in that year’s Five Nations.
He made a successful start, converting all three Welsh tries and adding a penalty for a nine point haul in a 21-3 home win over Ireland. He followed that up with a further 10 points in a 16-11 triumph over France in Paris as Wales shared the title.
Many thought he should have toured with the British & Irish Lions in South Africa that summer, but he wasn’t able to get time off from College to make the tour. He went on to retain his place in the Welsh side during the 1956 Five Nations, which Wales this time won outright. England were beaten 8-3 at Twickenham, three tries sunk the Scots 9-3 in Cardiff and only an 11-3 defeat to the Irish in Dublin prevented a Triple Crown.
Once again the final match of the season was against the French and a controversial try from CD Williams, as he slid over the dead ball line after giving chase to an Onllwyn Brace cross kick, levelled the scores. Up stepped a nerveless Owen to slot the conversion and the match was won by Wales, 5-3.
It wasn’t a bad way to end his international career in the 15-a-side code. Seven months later, struggling to get back into the Newport team after injury and without a job after graduating, he accepted an offer to join Halifax.
So the story goes, a speculative report in the Daily Herald under the headline ‘Halifax offer Owen £5,000’ precipitated a move to rugby league. If it was news to the Welsh full back, it was also news to the club, who Owen rang to see if there was any truth in the article.
But with both parties now thinking about the possibility of a switch of codes a deal was cooked up and Owen signed live on ‘Sportsview’. It was a big news story, and another big name capture for rugby league from Wales, and there were 3,000 fans at Thrum Hall to see his debut for Halifax A against Bradford Northern reserves five days later.
Owen didn’t disappoint, kicking eight goals in a 37-7 victory. His first team debut came in a European Championship match against Albi in France and he went on to make 31 appearances in his debut season, scoring 91 goals.
He kicked all nine points in a famous 6-3 win over the touring Australians a mere month into his league career and he was named as a reserve for the Great Britain World Cup squad in Australia in the summer of 1957. It was a great start to his new career, but the following season he spent five months in the reserves.
When he earned a recall to the first-team he showed them what they had been missing with a haul of six goals in a win at Bramley. He was also picked to play for the Rugby League XIII against France and picked up where he had left off in his final rugby union game for Wales by kicking five goals to earn his side a 19-8 triumph.
Another native of Llanharan, Brian Sparks, joined Owen at Halifax in the 1957-58 season. They had played together four times for Wales in union, but weren’t able to win more caps together in league because the Welsh team didn’t play any full internationals at 13-a-side between 1953-1968.
Owen did, however, play for a Wales XIII against France on St David’s Day, 1959 in Toulouse. He kicked one goal in that match as a Welsh side captained by his fellow Halifax clubmate John Thorley was beaten 25-8.
He was made the Halifax captain in 1958-59 and broke the club record help by fellow Welshman Tuss Griffiths with 150 goals the following season. He ended his career with 890 goals and 1,801 points from his career with Halifax (5 seasons) and then Keighley (4 seasons).
In his latter years at Keighley he also helped with the coaching and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at both clubs. He remained a keen sportsman throughout his life, playing golf and crown green bowls after handing up his boots.
The Welsh Rugby Union offers its sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Garfield Owen, especially his wife, Marlene, and their two children, Russell and Sally.
