Tony Collins is a British social historian specialising in the history of sport.
[8] In addition to the social history of rugby league and rugby union, he has also written about the global rise of sport in books such as Sport in Capitalist Society (2013) and How Football Began: How the World’s Football Codes Were Born (2018).
[9] In 2020, he was made a member of the Rugby Football League’s Roll of Honour in recognition of his work as a historian of the sport.
[10] He has appeared and worked as a consultant on many television and radio programmes, including BBC Radio Four’s Sport and the British series,[11] the History Channel’s Football: A Brief History By Alfie Allen,[12] BBC Wales’ The Rugby Codebreakers,[13] the 2019 New Zealand TV series The Story of Rugby,[14] and 2020’s Shane Williams: Rugby Concussion and Me.
[15] He has also been a board or committee member of a number of public organisations including Rugby League Cares,[16] the World Rugby Museum, Hull Kingston Rovers’ Community Trust,[17] the historians’ panel of the National Football Museum's English Football Hall of Fame, and the Yorkshire and Humber region of the Heritage Lottery Fund.