Even if Tyler Dupree lifts the World Club Challenge trophy, it still won’t be the biggest sporting prize a member of his family has won.
“My uncle Billy Joe Dupree was a Super Bowl champion with the Dallas Cowboys in 1978,” reveals the England and Wigan Warriors prop, who will play Penrith Panthers at the DW Stadium on Saturday evening.
“I think Super Bowl might be a little bit bigger than the World Club Challenge! But for me and what I want to achieve in rugby league, the World Club Challenge is huge.”
Dupree’s famous family ties don’t end with the former Cowboys tight end. His grandfather – Billy Joe’s father – was a successful blues singer known as Champion Jack Dupree, who recorded with Eric Clapton, among others.
“He was an orphan in American, then became a blues player and became quite famous,” Dupree tells Mail Sport. ‘He was also a boxer, a chef in the Navy and then a prisoner of war in Japan. He did everything.’
Tyler Dupree is desperate to take on the World Club Challenge with Wigan
The England international faces a tough challenge against NRL powerhouse Penrith
The Panthers have won three NRL Premierships and are the best side in the world
A bit like Halifax-born Dupree himself, who, after the heartbreak of being released by his boyhood club Leeds Rhinos in 2020, had to make ends meet outside of rugby league. He started as a worker on a construction site and then became a support worker in a children’s home.
“My mother used to do it, so I recognize it,” the 24-year-old explains. ‘I wanted to be able to help these people and have an input into their lives. It was very rewarding.’
With a career as a rugby league player looking increasingly unlikely, Dupree enlisted in the army. But his sliding door moment came when he was tackled by Championship club Oldham in 2021.
“I actually missed a meeting for the Army to have a meeting with (then Oldham coach) Matt Diskin,” he explains. “I wanted to see what I still had to offer in rugby league and I feel I made the right decision.”
Dupree hasn’t looked back since. After being named the Championship’s young player of the year in a season that saw Oldham relegated, he joined Widnes in the second tier before quickly moving on to Salford in the top flight.
Last year, just after making his England debut against France, he signed for Super League giants Wigan mid-season. With his new club he went on to win the League Leaders’ Shield and Grand Final, completing a remarkable rise from the rugby league scrapheap to silverware in just three years.
“I’m really proud,” he admits. ‘It was very hard to hear at a young age that you were not good enough and that you were not wanted. But I don’t think I would have wanted the trip any other way.
Dupree’s uncle Billy Joe was a star for the Dallas Cowboys and won Super Bowl XII
Dupree played 10 seasons with the Cowboys and was a three-time Pro Bowl selection
‘I now have a greater appreciation for the position I am in and no longer take anything for granted. To do what I love full time and call it a job doesn’t get much better.
‘I’ve managed to achieve things I didn’t think I would achieve, but I just hope I can now improve on that and go one step further.’
That could come even better on Saturday evening in the showdown between the champions of England and Australia in front of a sold-out DW Stadium and a national TV audience on the BBC.
Wigan have won the World Club Challenge four times and victory would see them equal Sydney Roosters’ record of five trophies. Their opponents, NRL premier Penrith, have finished runners-up three times, including against Wigan in 1991 and St Helens in their own backyard last year.
Wigan have won the World Club Challenge four times and victory could see them equal Sydney Roosters’ record of five trophies
“It’s surreal to be competing against the rest in the rugby world,” Dupree added. ‘I want to prove that I can ride with them and not fall behind.
‘The World Club Challenge is a historic event for Wigan. For us new players, we meet once a week to discuss the history of the club and the players from the past.
‘It’s opened my eyes and given me a real appreciation for the place. Last year we won the two trophies, but this year we’re going for it all.’
