William Albert Whitehead QSM (19 August 1931 – 15 January 2021) was a New Zealand sports administrator who was involved in rugby league for more than 70 years.
[1] He is arguably the most decorated man in Rugby League,[citation needed] being the holder of nine life memberships, both the senior and schoolboys boards of Canterbury and West Coast, his club Marist and NZ Marist Rugby League Association of which he was President for a record eight years, and patron when it was disbanded by President/Secretary Ross Lipscombe in 2000.
"WA" was for some time a Vice President of NZ Universities Rugby League, a team he managed to beat Australian Universities for the first time in 1971, when coached by Eddie Butts, and was a life member (its last) of the now defunct NZRL Schoolboys' Council, and elected a life member of NZ Rugby League (with original schoolboy Kiwi, Bud Lisle) in 1998.
His tenth life membership was of the Canterbury Licensed Trade Bowls club, he was its tournament convenor for many years when Blanchard was President.
He was Bar Manager (eight bars) for the DB Golden Oldies World Cricket Festival in 1992 and organised South Island, Canterbury Jockeys Rugby Union teams from 1958 to Whitehead was Chairman of the 75th Anniversary Committee for Canterbury in 1987, when Coffey, or "Coffdrop" to his friends, published 1965 and co-ordinator of Rugby League Night at Trots at Addington Raceway from its inception in 1982 till 2011.