Don Bradman..The Great

OUR DON BRADMAN

Who is it that all Australia raves about? Who has won our very highest praise? Now is it Amy Johnson, or little Mickey Mouse? No! it's just a country lad who's bringing down the house. And he's Our Don Bradman - And I ask you is he any good? Our Don Bradman - As a batsman he can sure lay on the wood. For when he goes in to bat He knocks ev'ry record flat, For there isn't any thing he cannot do, Our Don Bradman - Ev'ry Aussie "dips his lid" to you. "OUR DON BRADMAN" Lyrics from a song written by Jack O'Hagan (1930) [ who also wrote "Along the Road to Gundagai" ]

Cricket has been linked to rugby league in Australia since the game's founding in 1907 when Victor Trumper (Test cricketer) and James J. Giltinan (cricket umpire and team manager) combined to ignite the formation of the NSWRL.

While the larger connections between the two sports is a story in itself, a recent dig in the newspaper archives revealed a few long-lost 'rugby league' snippets from the life of arguably Australia's greatest sportsman - cricket's Don Bradman.

Donald Bradman was born in Cootamundra on 27th August, 1908 (just two days before Souths and Easts played the first NSWRL premiership Final). His parents worked a farm, but in 1911 decided to move to Bowral, in the NSW Southern Highlands, to raise their young family.

In 1959, after he had retired from cricket, Bradman gave an interview to The Age (in Melbourne). It was in this recently uncovered article that Bradman revealed that he played rugby league during his teenage years in Bowral.

In discussing his achievements as a student, Bradman said, "I used to finish third or fourth in a class of 30-odd but the boy and girl who were ahead of me were streets ahead. Perhaps it was not a matter of brains. I was too interested in sport - rugby league, tennis and running as well as cricket. The best answer probably is that I passed my intermediate with two A's and six B's."

Asking colleagues of what they knew of Bradman's 'other sports', a few thought he had played rugby (union). It seems somewhere in the past, the 'league' dropped off his football career, and it was replaced by incorrect references to rugby union.

The Age article is significant as, despite being a Victorian paper, it makes the clear distinction from Bradman that he played "rugby league", and not rugby union - it is fortunate the Melbourne editor did not change it to simply 'rugby'.

Don Bradman also wrote his 'life story' for The Sydney Morning Herald in 1930 - unfortunately, in that series of articles, (almost certainly compiled by a journalist), it says he played rugby 'for the school XV'. Given this must have been after WW1, when rugby union contracted to a handful of private schools in Sydney, it seems very unlikely he played the 15-man code. Which is why the specific quote attributed to Bradman in The Age can, with little doubt, be taken as the real story.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, a search of the Bradman Museum website finds they imply to all (except for one mention in the 'fact file') that he played 'rugby' at school - not rugby league.

The Sir Donald Bradman biography at the South Australian State Library website, and related publications on offer there, also refer to the 'rugby' deeds of Bradman. Interestingly, the site also manages to refer to Australian rugby league's Eric Weissel as a 'rugby star':

"On 22 November 1926, Bradman made his first appearance on the SCG, as a member of the Southern [cricket] team against Riverina. He made 43 before he was dismissed by rugby star Eric Weissel. After Country Week, he joined Sydney's St George club, travelling each weekend from Bowral. In his first game, he made his first century on turf. The following Monday, he made 98 for the Country side against a City XI."

While Bradman's deeds as a footballer are of no real significance, it is important for rugby league that it be referred to correctly. The fact that in a Bowral high school Bradman was playing rugby league at all, barely a decade after the code's arrival, is a measure of how far it had spread, how quickly it had become part of the fabric of the state's sport.

Claming 'Our Don' is also claiming our own game's history.