| 1964–65 Rugby Football League season | |
| League: | Championship |
| Season Champs: | Halifax |
| Season Champ Name: | Champions |
| League Leaders: | St. Helens |
| League Leaders Name: | League Leaders |
| Top Scorer: | Len Killeen 360 |
| Top Try Scorer: | Trevor Lake 40 |
| Join: | Bradford Northern |
| Join Method: | Reformed |
| Prevseason Link: | 1963–64 Northern Rugby Football League season |
| Prevseason Year: | 1963–64 |
| Nextseason Link: | 1965–66 Northern Rugby Football League season |
| Nextseason Year: | 1965–66 |
The 1964–65 Rugby Football League season was the 70th season of rugby league football.
1964-65 saw the two divisions of rugby league merge back into one single league. The championship play-offs returned to decide the champions. A new top 16 play-off format was introduced rather than top four system used between 1905–06 and 1962–63. A Bottom 14 Championship was also introduced for the remaining clubs who finished below the top 16, although some clubs declined to take part.
St. Helens had finished the regular season as league leaders. Halifax won their third Championship when they beat St. Helens 15-7 in the play-off final. Terry Fogerty was awarded the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man-of-the-match.
Challenge Cup winners were Wigan who beat Hunslet 20-16 in the final.
Bradford Northern were resurrected and accepted back into the League.[1]
St. Helens won the Lancashire League, and Castleford won the Yorkshire League.
| width=20 abbr="Position" | width=175 | Team | width=20 abbr="Played" | Pld | width=20 abbr="Won" | W | width=20 abbr="Drawn" | D | width=20 abbr="Lost" | L | width=20 abbr="Points" | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Helens | 34 | 28 | 0 | 6 | 56 | |||||||
| 2 | Wigan | 34 | 26 | 0 | 8 | 52 | |||||||
| 3 | Castleford | 34 | 25 | 1 | 8 | 51 | |||||||
| 4 | Wakefield Trinity | 34 | 24 | 2 | 8 | 50 | |||||||
| 5 | Warrington | 34 | 24 | 1 | 9 | 49 | |||||||
| 6 | Workington Town | 34 | 23 | 1 | 10 | 47 | |||||||
| 7 | Halifax | 34 | 22 | 1 | 10 | 47 | |||||||
| 8 | Hull Kingston Rovers | 34 | 22 | 0 | 12 | 44 | |||||||
| 9 | Oldham | 34 | 20 | 1 | 13 | 41 | |||||||
| 10 | Leeds | 34 | 20 | 0 | 14 | 40 | |||||||
| 11 | Swinton | 34 | 19 | 1 | 14 | 39 | |||||||
| 12 | Leigh | 34 | 19 | 1 | 14 | 39 | |||||||
| 13 | Hull F.C. | 34 | 19 | 0 | 15 | 38 | |||||||
| 14 | Hunslet | 34 | 19 | 0 | 15 | 38 | |||||||
| 15 | Featherstone Rovers | 34 | 18 | 0 | 16 | 36 | |||||||
| 16 | Barrow | 34 | 18 | 0 | 16 | 36 | |||||||
| 17 | Bradford Northern | 34 | 15 | 1 | 18 | 31 | |||||||
| 18 | Huddersfield | 34 | 15 | 0 | 19 | 30 | |||||||
| 19 | Widnes | 34 | 14 | 2 | 18 | 30 | |||||||
| 20 | Whitehaven | 34 | 14 | 1 | 19 | 29 | |||||||
| 21 | Dewsbury | 34 | 13 | 2 | 18 | 28 | |||||||
| 22 | Salford | 34 | 11 | 2 | 21 | 24 | |||||||
| 23 | Liverpool City | 34 | 10 | 2 | 22 | 22 | |||||||
| 24 | Bramley | 34 | 10 | 1 | 23 | 21 | |||||||
| 25 | York | 34 | 10 | 0 | 24 | 20 | |||||||
| 26 | Batley | 34 | 9 | 1 | 24 | 19 | |||||||
| 27 | Keighley | 34 | 9 | 0 | 25 | 18 | |||||||
| 28 | Doncaster | 34 | 9 | 0 | 25 | 18 | |||||||
| 29 | Rochdale Hornets | 34 | 7 | 1 | 26 | 15 | |||||||
| 30 | Blackpool Borough | 34 | 6 | 2 | 26 | 14 | |||||||
See main article: 1964–65 Challenge Cup.
Captained by player-coach Eric Ashton,[2] Wigan beat Hunslet 20–16 in the final played at Wembley in front of a crowd of 89,016.
This was Wigan’s seventh Cup Final win in thirteen Final appearances.
To date, this was Hunslet’s last Challenge Cup Final appearance.[3]
See main article: 1964–65 Lancashire Cup.
See main article: 1964–65 Yorkshire Cup. St Helens beat Swinton 12–4 to win the Lancashire Cup, and Wakefield Trinity beat Leeds 18–2 to win the Yorkshire Cup.