Wally Lewis

Walter James Lewis AM (born 1 December 1959) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 1980s and 1990s.

He became a commentator for television coverage of the sport.

A highly decorated Australian national captain, Lewis is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever players of rugby league.

His time as a player and coach was followed by a career as a sports presenter for the Nine Network.

Lewis was born in Hawthorne, Queensland on 1 December 1959.

His father, Jimmy, played first grade rugby league at or for Brisbane clubs Wests and Souths, later becoming coach of the Wynnum-Manly club.

His mother, June, was a Queensland representative netball player.

When he was six years old, Lewis was playing rugby league with Cannon Hill Stars, usually at lock forward.

He played in junior Queensland school teams, at times representing his state against New South Wales before a State or Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Lewis attended Brisbane State High School during the 1970s.

In 1977 while still in high school, Lewis also played representative rugby union as a Centre, touring Europe and Japan with the Australian schoolboys team alongside the likes of Tony Melrose, Michael O'Connor, and all three Ella brothers Mark, Glen and Gary, all of whom went on to represent The Wallabies, while O'Connor would become a dual international when he played alongside Lewis for the Kangaroos.

The 1977 Australian Schoolboys Rugby Union tour of Great Britain would see the first of three times Lewis would make undefeated tours of Britain with Australian national teams.

According to Lincoln Lewis, Wally and his brother Scott, who played alongside him in the BRL, are butchers by trade.

Following his return to Australia from the 1977 Schoolboys tour, Lewis faced discrimination in the Queensland Rugby Union fraternity due to his rugby league background.

After being told he would no longer be selected for any representative teams if he continued to play league, he immediately decided his future lay with rugby league, playing in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership with Valleys Diehards from 1978.

Also in 1978, Lewis (and another young Brisbane based lock from Wests named Paul Vautin) turned down an offer to play in the famed Sydney premiership with the North Sydney Bears.

While Lewis would remain in Brisbane in 1979, Vautin would go on to sign with 1978 Sydney premiers the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.

In 1979 Lewis made his senior début for Queensland from the bench in games played under the old State of Residence rules, and also played for a Brisbane representative side against the touring Great Britain Lions.

With former Australian halfback Ross Strudwick now captain-coach of the Diehards, Lewis helped Valleys to premiership victory over the Wayne Bennett-coached Souths Magpies side in the BRL Grand Final at Lang Park.

Playing in the centres for the Magpies that day was a 19-year-old cadet policeman who would become a long serving Queensland and Australian teammate of Lewis in the coming decade, Mal Meninga.

Nicknamed The King and also The Emperor of Lang Park, Lewis represented Queensland in thirty-one State of Origin games from 1980 to 1991, and was captain for thirty of them.

Lewis is perhaps best known for his State of Origin performances, spearheading Queensland's dominance in that competition throughout the 1980s and winning a record 8 man of the match awards.

Lewis made the run-on side for Queensland in the inaugural State of Origin match in 1980 at lock forward alongside his hero Arthur Beetson who at the age of 35 was playing in his first ever game for his home state.

There were some in the press who questioned his selection, claiming he should have started from the bench with well performed Brisbane Wests lock Norm Carr in the starting side.

Lewis however had a hand in Queensland's first ever State of Origin try scored by Kerry Boustead.

The following year a second State of Origin match was played, and captain-coach Arthur Beetson was a late withdrawal due to injury.

In what proved to be a master stroke, Beetson coached the team from the sidelines and handed the captaincy over to 21-year-old Lewis who had moved from lock to play.

He also represented Australia in thirty-three international matches from 1981 to 1991 and was national team captain from 1984 to 1989.

His form for Queensland in both the two games played under the old residence system, and the one Origin game in which he scored one of four Qld tries, saw him selected to make his Test début for Australia in 1981, playing five-eighth in a 43–3 win over France at the SCG.

At the Australian team's first training session (at Lang Park), coach Frank Stanton wasn't impressed with Lewis' fitness after he lagged behind in a set of 400 metre runs, though it was reported that Lewis wasn't alone and only lock forward Ray Price had completed the runs without too much trouble.

During the game Lewis had a chance to score his first test try.

Lewis has since been inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame and in 1999 he became the sixth member of 'The Immortals'.

In 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in the sport of rugby league.

In February 2008, Lewis was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.

Lewis went on to be named in the halves in the Kangaroos' Team of the Century.

Announced on 17 April 2008, the team is the panel's majority choice for each of the thirteen starting positions and four interchange players.

In June 2008, he was also chosen in the Queensland Rugby League's Team of the Century at five-eighth and captain.

In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, Wally Lewis was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for his role as a "sports legend".

In 2011, Lewis was a recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards.

In October 2016, he became the 38th Legend of Australian Sport at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame awards.