RUGBY league custodian GRAHAM Lowe is to be knighted.

The Kiwi made the Queen's Birthday Honours 2019 list announced today.

Lowe, who came in with Andrew Chalmers in early 2017 to save Bradford Bulls, was awarded a Knights Companion of the said Order (KNZM) under The New Zealand Order of Merit.

He has received the award for his services to youth and education.

The 72-year-old set up the Lowie Foundation in 2017, which is an independent charity that uses sport and teaching as a way to change the lives of disadvantaged teens.

Lowe already has two awards to his name.

In 1986 he was given the Queen's Service Medal.

Then in 2013, the Kiwi was appointed as an Officer in the the Order for services for the community - two levels below his latest honour.

Lowe told New Zealand news site "stuff" that he must have said "yes" 100 times when he received the call about whether he wanted to accept the award.

He added: "I feel immense pride about it and the pride in itself is overwhelming really. I can't put it into words.

"Rugby league and sport are really important and play a big part in our lives, but I'm a believer in supporting, helping and educating disadvantaged young people.

"I always thought this could be done, simply by applying this around the 12 principles I have.

"I don't deliver the courses, I've just designed it, but I've got the polytechs to weave the literacy and numeracy studies around those 12 principles, which are based on the language of sport and that gives them a different way to learn something."