Chris McKivat - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Christopher Hobart McKivat (alternatively spelled McKivatt) (27 November 1879 – 4 May 1941) was an Australian rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

and rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

player – a dual-code rugby international. He represented the Wallabies

Australia national rugby union team

The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...

in over 20 Tests and tour matches from 1907 to 1909 and the Kangaroos in 5 Tests from 1910 to 1912. He is unique in Australian rugby history as the only man to captain both the national rugby union and rugby league teams. Following his playing career he became the most successful coach of the North Sydney Bears

North Sydney Bears

The North Sydney Bears are an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. They currently compete in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 92 years of top-grade competition. The Bears are based on...

in the club's history.

Unique in history

He captained the 1908 Summer Olympics

1908 Summer Olympics

The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London, England, United Kingdom. These games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. At the time they were the fifth modern Olympic games...

gold medal winning Wallaby side and was the eighth captain of the Australian national rugby league team

Australian national rugby league team

The Australian national rugby league team have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League, the Kangaroos' are ranked number one in the RLIF World Rankings...

leading them in all 3 Tests of the 1911–12 tour. Thus he captained his country to victory on tour in two different rugby codes.

Rugby union career

He was born in Cumnock, New South Wales

Cumnock, New South Wales

Cumnock is a small town in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the now closed cross-country railway line from Molong to Dubbo. The town is located in Cabonne Shire. At the 2006 census, Cumnock had a population of 288 people...

and educated by the Patrician Brothers in Orange. He played country rugby union with the "Our Boys" club in Wellington and was regularly selected in country representative teams until he was 26. He was a tactically brilliant half-back and a great on-field leader of both forwards and backs.

Affectionately known as the "hairy bloke", he moved to Sydney to join the Glebe Rugby Club in 1905 and played five-eighth for four seasons outside Fred Wood

Fred Wood

Frederick Wood was an Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative half-back. He was vice-captain of the Wallabies on their first overseas tour in 1908-09 and later captained the side in Test matches in 1910 and 1914...

who would later be vice-captain of the 1908–09 Wallabies. McKivat was selected for New South Wales in 1905 to represent against the visiting All Blacks

All Blacks

The New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....

and then for the Wallabies

Australia national rugby union team

in 1907 playing three Tests against the All Blacks. He was on the first Wallaby

Australia national rugby union team

tour of the United Kingdom in 1908–09 and captained the side in 17 tour matches including the historic gold medal winning match against Cornwall representing England in the 1908 London Olympics.

Rugby league career

He crossed over to the professional code joining the Glebe Rugby League Club as a 30 year old veteran in 1910.

He made his rugby league international debut that same year in the first Test in Sydney on 18 June 1910 against Great Britain. Four of his former Wallaby

Australia national rugby union team

team mates also debuted that day John Barnett

John Barnett (rugby)

John Thomas "Jumbo" Barnett was a pioneer Australian rugby union and rugby league player and won an Olympic gold medal winning in rugby at the 1908 Summer Olympics...

, Bob Craig, Jack Hickey and Charles Russell

Charles Russell (rugby)

Charles "Boxer" Joseph Russell was a pioneer Australian rugby union and rugby league footballer and coach. He represented his country in both sports and was one Australia's early dual-code rugby internationals...

– making them collectively Australia's 11th to 15th dual code internationals. This repeated a similar occurrence two years earlier when five former Wallabies in Micky Dore

Micky Dore

Michael Joseph "Micky" Dore , was an Australian representative rugby union and rugby league player - a dual-code international. He was one of the founding fathers of rugby league in Queensland...

, Dally Messenger

Dally Messenger

Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger was an Australian rugby union and rugby league footballer, recognised as one of the greatest ever players in either code. Messenger, or 'The Master' as he was dubbed, represented his country in both rugby football codes, playing two rugby union tests and seven...

, Denis Lutge

Denis Lutge

Denis "Dinny" Lutge was a pioneer Australian rugby league and rugby union player, a dual-code international...

, Doug McLean snr and
Johnny Rosewell

John Rosewell (rugby)

John S. H. Rosewell was a pioneer Australian rugby union and rugby league player and represented his country at both sports — a dual-code international.-Rugby union career:His rugby union career was played with the South Sydney RUFC...

all debuted for the Kangaroos

Australian national rugby league team

in the first ever Test against New Zealand

New Zealand national rugby league team

The New Zealand national rugby league team has represented New Zealand in rugby league football since intercontinental competition began for the sport in 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of that name...

.

The crowning achievement of his distinguished football career came on the 1911-12 Kangaroo tour when he captained Australia in all three Tests against Great Britain for two wins and one draw to a series victory that would not be equalled for more than 50 years

Australia's first Rugby League Ashes

Rugby League Ashes

The Ashes is the name given to the trophy awarded to the winner of a best-of-three series of rugby league football test series between Great Britain and Australia...

success was testament to his on-field genius and off-field leadership. He played in 31 matches on Tour (30 successive appearances) and scored 10 tries. The Heads/Middleton reference describes him a being revered on that tour – a magnificent general, tough, durable and an inspiration to the men around him. It quotes Johnny Quinlan the tour co-manager "He always set a splendid example in conduct and training – a natural leader"

His representative career ended at age 32 with that Ashes success and in retirement he became the first of the game's high profile non-playing coaches. He coached Glebe, Wests

Western Suburbs Magpies

The Western Suburbs Magpies are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly referred to, were one of the nine foundation clubs of the first New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...

and Norths

North Sydney Bears

in the following years, including North Sydney's premiership winning sides of 1921–22. He died unexpectedly in 1941.

The man and his accolades

The Heads/Middleton reference describes him as quiet, good humoured man off the football field, always immaculately dressed and often puffing on a cigar but a lesson in contrasts on the field – voluble, hard-driving and relentlessly barking orders.

In 2005 McKivat was admitted into the Australian Rugby League

Australian Rugby League

The Australian Rugby League is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in Australia. It is made up of state bodies, including the New South Wales Rugby League and the Queensland Rugby League...

Hall of Fame. In August 2006 he was named as coach of the North Sydney Bears' Team of the Century.

In February 2008, McKivat was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL

National Rugby League

The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...

and ARL

Australian Rugby League

to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.

External links

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