FORMER Saints three-quarter Mick Sullivan, one of rugby league’s all-time greats, died this week, aged 82.

Sully, a world record £11,000 signing from Wigan in 1961 and a member of Saints’ historic Challenge Cup winning side that year, remains Great Britain’s most capped player with 46 appearances – a record he shares with Garry Schofield.

Pudsey-born Sullivan, who also played for Huddersfield, York and Dewsbury, was inducted into the RFL Hall of Fame in 2013, one of only 25 players to have received that honour.

His daughter, Michelle Sullivan, said on Facebook on Tuesday: “It is with a broken heart I would like to announce my dad Mick Sullivan (SULLY) passed away peacefully today age 82 years - an amazing dad, grandad and rugby league legend.”

Sully died after a long illness, following being admitted to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield last week.

As well as being remembered for his scoring feats, the two-times World Cup winner (1954 and 1960) was renowned for toughness and an ability to shut down opponents’ attacking threats.

His try-scoring Saints debut came at centre in a 22-15 win against Hull at Knowsley Road on January 16, 1961.

He shone for three seasons in a squad steered by Alan Prescott and then Stan McCormick, playing in a backline that also featured revered ex-Saints like Tom van Vollenhoven and Alex Murphy.

The highlight was Saints’ first Challenge Cup Final at Wembley in 1961, when Sully played on the left flank keeping another wing legend Billy Boston reasonably quiet in a 12-6 defeat of Wigan.

That occasion was the start of Saints wearing their now traditional red vee shirt.

He also pocketed winners’ medals in the 1961 and 1962 Lancashire Cup Final defeats of Swinton.

While with Saints, Sully crossed for 29 tries in 80 appearances and also gained 10 of his 46 GB caps, played once for England and three times for Yorkshire.

He finished his career back in Yorkshire, from 1963 to 1965 with York and his final season, 1965-1966, in this country was with Dewsbury, though he also cameoed as captain-coach of Group 9 outfit Junee, in New South Wales, Australia from 1966 to 1968.

Sully first turned professional, aged 18, with Huddersfield from Shawcross Boys Club on May 29,1952.

It was in the first World Cup in France in 1954, won by Britain, that Sully made a name for himself and three years later commanded his first world record transfer fee when joining Wigan for £9,500.

He won the Championship with the cherry and whites in 1960 and scored tries in both finals as Wigan lifted the Challenge Cup in 1958 and 1959, while another important try came for a Great Britain side that defeated Australia in the 1960 World Cup Final.

Sully crossed the whitewash 41 times for the Lions, while also gaining selection for each Test in the Ashes-winning series of 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1962.

In total he scored 342 tries, which included a chart-topping 50 in the 1957-58 season and 120 in a representative career of 102 games for Yorkshire, England and Great Britain.

Sully scored a hat-trick of tries in the 1958 deciding Ashes Test in Sydney.