Joe Cartwright played hooker in Leigh's 13-0 victory over Halifax in the 1920–21 Challenge Cup Final during the 1920–21 season at The Cliff, Broughton on Saturday 30 April 1921, in front of a crowd of 25,000.

[citation needed] Joe Cartwright retired from playing football in 1926, and he started work at the Parsonage Colliery, Leigh building underground roads.

After his death in December 1949, an inquiry was held to determine if it was caused by work conditions, at which point his health was investigated.

Cartwright had not been employed at the colliery very long when he was struck in the back by a sharp piece of stone, and he was out of work 15 weeks.

When questioned by C. L. Tyrer, the President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation, Dr. S. H. Jackson said he had found slight traces of pneumoconiosis in Cartwright, but that this had not accelerated his death.