JOHN Quayle rekindled some fond memories when he returned to his old home town Manilla on the weekend with a Men Of League Bowls day, unveiling a plaque commemorating Dally Messenger’s starting of rugby league in Tiger town, and then capped it all off by being inducted into the Tamworth Regional Sporting Hall Of Fame yesterday.
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The former Easts and Parramatta rugby league star, who played for NSW and Australia before running the NSWRL, was generous in his praise of the Tamworth Regional Council and men such as Ron Surtees and Wally Franklin for honouring so many talented athletes and sporting stars with a such a “wonderful” Hall of Fame.
“This is a credit to them all,” Quayle said yesterday.
“They have done such a professional job.
“It’s a wonderful achievement. I feel very honoured.”
The son of the local Anglican minister, Quayle grew up in Manilla and was an apprentice mechanic in Tamworth, working under Kevin George at McKnight Brothers, a local garage.
“We had some good times,” George said yesterday.
“He was a good mechanic and has always been such a good bloke.”
Quayle moved to Sydney where he began his rugby league career with Eastern Suburbs in 1968, playing 45 games before heading to Parramatta.
At the Eels he played another 56 first grade games before being selected for NSW and Australia.
He went to England in 1975 with the Australian World Cup team but suffered a shoulder injury and retired the following year.
In 1983 he became the NSWRL’s first general manager, a position he held until 1996.
He then started with the Sydney Olympic Games Organising Committee and one of his highlights was working at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
“Sydney is still held up as the model for any major sporting event,” Quayle said.
“It was a wonderful event.”
These days he still dabbles in some administration as the head of NSW Venues in Parramatta, Wollongong and Newcastle as well as being on the Newcastle Knights board, working to return them to success after such a disastrous period of turmoil under Nathan Tinkler.
He also has a farm at Denman where he spends much of his time.
“It’s important Tamworth has a Hall of Fame, to honour those people who had the opportunity to play in so many different sports at such a high level,” he said.
“Sport plays such a major role in so many lives.”