Thomas Ellison, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Thomas Ellison

New Zealand rugby union player

Date of Birth: 01-Jan-0001

Place of Birth: Otago Region, New Zealand

Date of Death: 02-Oct-1904

Profession: lawyer, rugby union player

Nationality: New Zealand

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn


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About Thomas Ellison

  • Thomas Rangiwahia Ellison, also known as Tom Ellison or Tamati Erihana (c.
  • 1867 – 2 October 1904) was a New Zealand rugby union player and lawyer.
  • He led the first New Zealand representative rugby team organised by the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) on their 1893 tour of Australia.
  • Ellison also played in the 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team on their epic 107-match tour, scoring 113 points, and 43 tries with the side. Born in Otakou, Otago Heads, Ellison was educated at Te Aute College, where he was introduced to rugby.
  • After moving to Wellington, Ellison played for the Poneke Football Club, and was selected to play for Wellington province.
  • He was recruited into Joe Warbrick's privately organised Native football team in 1888, and continued to play for both Poneke and Wellington on his return from that tour.
  • In 1892, he started to refine and popularise the wing-forward system of play, which was a vital element of New Zealand rugby's success until 1932.
  • At the first NZRFU annual general meeting in 1893, he proposed that the playing colours of the New Zealand side should be predominantly black with a silver fern—a playing strip that would give the team their famous name of All Blacks.
  • He retired from playing rugby after captaining the 1893 New Zealand side to New South Wales and Queensland, but continued in the sport as a coach and administrator.
  • Ellison was the author of a coaching manual, The Art of Rugby Football, published in 1902. As well as being one of the first Maori admitted to the bar, practising as a solicitor, and later as a barrister, Ellison also stood unsuccessfully for the Southern Maori parliamentary seat several times.
  • After contracting tuberculosis in 1904, he was briefly institutionalised before dying later that year.

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