Most rugby league followers describe it as the greatest Challenge Cup final of them all.
Starring on that unforgettable day for the Cherry and Whites was stand-off Brett Kenny, who scored a sensational individual try and turned in a man-of-the-match display to become the first Australian to collect the Lance Todd Trophy.
The memories of that special occasion are still fresh for Kenny, who won four Premiership titles in Australia either side of his one-year stay in England.
"One of the biggest is just walking out onto the ground," he told BBC Sport.
"It was the old Wembley and we had nearly 100,000 people there. Back in 1985, I'd never experienced playing in front of a crowd that large before. The atmosphere was tremendous.
"I always talk to people about that game and tell them how awesome it was walking along a tunnel that seemed to go on forever.
"It was very quiet, with players thinking about what they've got to do in the game. Then suddenly you come out of the tunnel and the crowd erupts. It was a magnificent sight."
As kick-off approached, the television cameras picked out an unflustered Kenny, standing with his hands in the pockets of his red tracksuit top.
"I don't know whether Brett Kenny wants to play," said BBC commentator Ray French as the two teams lined up for the national anthem. "He doesn't look interested."
He was interested. He did want to play.
When the game finally got under way, he produced a mercurial performance that enhanced his reputation as one of the greatest players of his era. French's colleague in the commentary box, the legendary Alex Murphy, dubbed him "Mr Magic".
He was involved in four of Wigan's five tries, running in from 50 metres to score himself, creating a memorable length-of-the-field effort for winger Henderson Gill and also setting up a teenage Shaun Edwards to score under the posts.
Leading 28-12 in the second half, Wigan were cruising. But Hull, inspired by Kenny's former Parramatta team-mate Peter Sterling, came close to a stunning comeback.
"There was one instance where they scored a try, we kicked off and within the next set of six they scored again," said Kenny, now aged 52.
"A lot of the Wigan players spoke to me after the game and they said it was the first time they'd ever heard me blow up.
"I let rip at the players and mentioned the fact they'd been there [to the final] the year before and lost the game [against Widnes].
"I asked if they wanted to do that two years in a row, because these guys were going to come back even stronger."
They held on and the full-time hooter sparked wild celebrations among the Wigan players and their 40,000 supporters.
So, If you want to see the game in it's entirety - download using this link http://hugefiles.net/6l93v47sx3bx
I uploaded the game myself
BUT FIRST follow the instructions on how to download this for FREE in the post below. Do not try and download until you see how to do it. There are no viruses, you don't need to join anything. Just follow the guide I made to own this gem forever
Replies
Click on any image to see a larger version
Sounds like an awesome game, yet complicated way of downloading, from a site I've never head of. Is it possible to upload it as a zip to dropbox? How big is the file?
Thanks for your time and efforts :)
I was there as well, ‘70s.
The thing that I found astounding was how civilised RL supporters were when compared with soccer fans over there. I’d been to a Chelsea /Liverpool game, and consider myself lucky to still be here today.
I remember thinking the train ride to Wembley could be a bit iffy, but the fans from both sides conducted themselves really well, with not much more than loud, friendly banter to be had (that I saw, anyway)...and no crowd segregation at the ground.
It was a great game and a great spectacle.
The biggest No Surprise of the Day was ‘The True King’, Brett Kenny winning MOM.
You're right Trini there wasn't any crowd trouble that I saw. I remember getting there early expecting a game beforehand but there was nothing. Just a military marching band and in the minutes before the match started the ground just filled amazingly fast. I still had the program from that game until very recently when the missus chucked it out when going through some old stuff. One man's treasure is his wife's trash!
Amen!
Hey GP - its a 700mb file and my isp only provides slow upload speeds = took 2.5hrs to upload.
The site (hugefiles) I chose is FREE,no sign up, DL speeds are fast and the process is reasonably simple - I have used other peoples uploaded files to download stuff (like the position you are in) from hugefiles and have had NO problems before......
write the word they want you to write
copy and paste the "gibberish" into the empty space
HIT Download button
untick "download using download acceleration box"
HIT Create Download Link button
it's really very simple - give it a go - your loss - not mine - i initially uploaded game to YouTube = took 2.5 hours only to have YouTube tell me at the end that it was cancelled because the file was too long - so then i uploaded to hugefiles
5hrs of uploading - so if interested, at least give my method a try
Otherwise, your out of luck I'm afraid
No more uploading from me
Ah, that's alright. Thanks for the reply and explaining the situation :)
I agree - loved to have been there also
I watched this match live on TV in the middle of the night
One of my most favorite matches ever as Kenny and Sterlo put on a masterclass for the ages
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next