RL:Big Artie dies on Gold Coast

AAP General News (Australia)
12-01-2011
RL:Big Artie dies on Gold Coast

By Doug Conway, AAP Senior Correspondent

SYDNEY, Dec 1 AAP - Arthur Beetson was a mover and shaker at the origin of Origin,
the first Queensland captain in a contest which has come to mean so much to rugby league
in general, and to banana-benders in particular.

Queensland won.

He was also the first indigenous Australian to captain his country in any sport.

He was an original.

His death from a heart attack while cycling on the Gold Coast sounds the final hooter
for one of the biggest names in the game, a man significant enough in both size and presence
to be fondly called "Big Artie".

The "knockabout country bloke" from Roma, as Premier Anna Bligh described him in state
parliament, not only captained the Maroons but coached them to State of Origin series
wins in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1989.

Between 1963 and 1981 he played 235 club games in Queensland, NSW and England, most
notably for the Eastern Suburbs Roosters, who he led to successive premierships in 1974
and 1975 and later coached.

He was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame and named as prop in
Australia's Team of the Century.

He could have eaten for Australia, too.

Beetson reportedly downed 11 hot dogs at a reception for the Australian team in 1973,
and that was before dinner.

Old-timers at the Roosters club in Sydney wept when they heard news of the 66-year-old's death.

"You'd never hear a bad word about Arthur Beetson," said fellow league great John Raper.

"I just loved the man."

AAP dc/gc/wk

KEYWORD: RL BEETSON FRONTER

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