Ron McAuliffe, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Ron McAuliffe

Australian rugby league footballer and administrator, and politician

Date of Birth: 25-Jun-1918

Place of Birth: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Date of Death: 16-Aug-1988

Profession: politician, rugby league player, sports administrator

Nationality: Australia

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About Ron McAuliffe

  • Ronald Edward McAuliffe OBE (25 June 1918 – 16 August 1988) was a politician and sports administrator in Queensland, Australia.
  • He is best remembered for his years running the Queensland Rugby League, and his instrumental role in the formation of the State of Origin series.McAuliffe attended school at St.
  • Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace in Brisbane.
  • In 1932 he played rugby league for the Gregory Terrace firsts.
  • He started playing senior rugby league in 1937 for the Northern Suburbs club, but with the outbreak of World War II he joined the Australian Imperial Force.
  • He served as a Warrant Officer for five years, before being honourably discharged after service in the Middle East and New Guinea with the 2/2 Casualty Clearing Station. After the war McAuliffe worked with the Queensland Railways Audit Office.
  • Whilst living at New Farm he formed social bonds with a number of Valleys players.
  • In the late 1940s he moved to Fortitude Valley's Brunswick Street, sharing a flat Roy Westaway, a former international representative playing for the Diehards.
  • According to Australian rugby league hall of fame inductee Duncan Hall, who was also playing for Valleys: (Ron) was one of those blokes who was always around the place...
  • he knew everyone worth knowing, and everyone knew him.
  • He drank at the Valley pub with us every night after work.
  • In fact, he was one of those blokes who was the life of the party and who never seemed to want to go home.
  • He was always around.McAuliffe was elected to the Valley's committee and became the club's delegate to the Brisbane Rugby League in 1951.
  • In 1952 he was elected chairman of the Brisbane Rugby League. In 1953 the Brisbane Rugby League was subsumed into the Queensland Rugby League (QRL).
  • Ron McAuliffe became secretary to the organisation and began negotiations with the Brisbane City Council to lease Lang Park. On 30 June 1971 McAuliffe was elected as a Senator for the Australian Labor Party in the Parliament of Australia.
  • That year he also became president of the QRL.
  • Although initially opposed to the idea, McAuliffe became a driving force behind the establishment of the State of Origin series.
  • The 1980s were to prove a golden period for rugby league in Queensland. McAuliffe sat in the Senate until 30 June 1981.
  • At the end of 1981 he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire. McAuliffe died in August 1988 from a stroke.
  • His funeral was held on 17 August 1988 at St.
  • Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Fortitude Valley and he was buried in Nudgee Cemetery.
  • His pall bearers included then Australian and Queensland captain Wally Lewis.
  • In his obituary The Courier-Mail journalist Barry Dick wrote that "he [Ron McAuliffe] loved a drink, loved an argument, and most of all, he loved company." The Ron McAuliffe Medal is awarded to each year's State of Origin Queensland player of the series.
  • Lang Park's Ron McAuliffe stand was also named in his honour. In 2009 McAuliffe was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame.

Read more at Wikipedia

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