OUT on Gertrude Street, Lionel Rose was a presence again.
At the entrance to the Fitzroy gymnasium he helped set up for young Aborigines was a replica of the life-size bronze statue erected in his home town of Warragul. It was accompanied by a condolences book for passers-by to express their appreciation of the former champion, who died on Sunday.
Rose’s legacy is in part the inspiration he gave to young Aborigines to excel, and who, in boxing great Barry Michael’s words, ”Showed just how far an Aboriginal could go.”
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flower-strewn statue at Warragul yesterday. Photo: Pat Scala
But his legacy is also the existence of the Melbourne Aboriginal Youth Sport and Recreation gym, perhaps better known by its former name of Fitzroy All Stars.
”Lionel was very much part of the drive to establish this,” its chief executive, Glenda Thorpe, said yesterday. ”This was very much the passion of Lionel and [its first administrator] Jock Austin.”
Aboriginal activist Robbie Thorpe said Rose understood that young people have energy to burn and that the sport had something to offer. ”It does something for them – they learn discipline and it’s their own people looking after them.”
Forty-three years after the event, the scale of Rose’s achievement in winning a world title overseas remains immense. The shy country kid who grew up in a dirt-floor shack at Jackson’s Track transfixed the nation when he challenged Masahiko ”Fighting” Harada for the world bantamweight title in Tokyo.
With no live television coverage, let alone pay-per-view, entire families with little interest in boxing tuned in to a crackling radio commentary from the other side of the world.
In something akin to Cathy Freeman’s comprehensive triumph at the Sydney Olympics, Rose’s world championship in a sport Australians hardly have made their own seemed almost too good to be true.
With no live television coverage, let alone pay-per-view, entire families with little interest in boxing tuned in to a crackling radio commentary from the other side of the world.
ReplyDeleteIn something akin to Cathy Freeman’s comprehensive triumph at the Sydney Olympics, Rose’s world championship in a sport Australians hardly have made their own seemed almost too good to be true.