1949-1959 Halberg Award Winners

1949-1959 Halberg Award Winners

1949 Bert Sutcliffe

1940’s Decade Champion

A prince among batsmen, Bert Sutcliffe must have been an automatic choice as the first recipient of the accolade of Sportsman of the Year. Sutcliffe in 1949 had been one of the shining lights of the New Zealand tour of England, scoring 423 runs in the four tests at an average of 60.42 and his total in all matches of 2627 runs had been exceeded only by Bradman. His highest score was 243 against Essex. His illustrious career shone through the 1950’s and when he laid down his bat in 1965, he’d played 42 test matches for New Zealand for an aggregate of 2727 runs at an average of 40.10. His highest first-class score of 385 for Otago against Canterbury in 1953, remains the best by a New Zealander. Sutcliffe, revered throughout his life as much for his humility as for his ability, died on 20 April 2001, aged 77.

1950 & 1952 Yvette Williams

1950’s Decade Champion

Yvette Williams was the wonder of her sporting age. The heptathlon and pentathlon had not been introduced in Williams’ time – had it been, she surely would have been among its finest exponents. Williams won the long jump at the Empire Games in Auckland in 1950 and two years later in Helsinki, won the Olympic long jump with an Olympic record distance. She set a world record for the long jump in Gisborne in early 1954 and, later that year, amazed with her versatility by winning the long jump, shot put and discus at the Empire Games in Vancouver. If that wasn’t enough, she also made the final of the 80 metres hurdles. And if there was ever any doubt about her wide-ranging skills and athleticism, Williams also played basketball for New Zealand.

1951 Ron Jarden

By modern standards, the 16 rugby tests Ron Jarden played for New Zealand may not sound like a lot. But by the standards of his day, the standards by which people can only be truly judged, Jarden was a potent force for his country, whether for his speed and skilful running, his finely-judged centre kicks from the wing, or for his goalkicking. On the 1951 All Blacks’ tour of Australia, Jarden’s total of 88 points beat a 48-year record and in one match, against Central West, he scored a record 38 points (six tries, 10 conversions). He was on the All Blacks’ tour of Britain, France and Ireland in 1953–54 and ended his career after the tumultuous 1956 series against South Africa, having scored a total of 213 points (35 tries) for his country. In 1975, he represented New Zealand in the Admiral’s Cup in his yacht, Barnacle Bill. He died in 1977.

1953 Barry Browne

Barry Browne was a boxer who, according to contemporary reports, had the looks of a matinee idol, the build of an Olympic athlete and unceasing courage. His skill and commitment transcended his sport and he had a popular following that would in later years have made him a superstar. Boxing in the 50’s was a drawcard sport and Browne its public face, especially when, at the Basin Reserve in January 1954, he beat, for the British Empire welterweight title, a South African, Gerald Dreyer, a fighter of greater experience and power. It was Browne’s first international fight and his stunning victory by a technical knockout in the seventh round made him a household name. Browne later earned as many accolades for his courage when he gamely fought on, though badly mismatched, against an American, Freddie Dawson, in Sydney. Browne in 1953 had 13 fights without defeat and when he retired in 1958, had fought 31 times for 27 wins.

1954 & 1963 Bob Charles

For more than 40 years, the name of Bob Charles has been synonymous with an understated excellence in golf, with unflappability and with an enduring capacity to be a flagbearer for his sport. He entered the national consciousness at the age of 18 in 1954 when, on Wellington’s Heretaunga course, he outplayed wiser and more experienced Australians Peter Thomson and Bruce Crampton to win the New Zealand Open. Nine years later, after three years on the burgeoning professional circuits of the United States and Europe, he won golf’s greatest prize, the British Open, in a playoff at the Royal Lytham and St Anne’s course, from American Phil Rodgers. It was the first major to be won by a New Zealander. Thirty years later, Charles won the Senior British Open on the same course. He’s continued on the seniors circuit since turning 50 and though his workplace is on the golf courses of the world, his home and his heart remain in New Zealand. He commits a percentage of his annual earnings to the development of young New Zealand golfers and was knighted in 1999.

1955 John Reid

There seemed nothing that John Reid couldn’t do as a cricketer – a batsman of exquisite timing and ferocious power, a bowler of medium-fast speed and guile, a fielder of energetic surety, even a wicketkeeper. Reid could do all of these things extraordinarily well in a New Zealand career that spanned 18 years. He played 58 tests for 3428 runs at an average of 33.28 and a highest score of 142, and took 85 test wickets at 33.35. Toward the end of 1955 on the tour of Pakistan and India, Reid scored 119 not out in a test partnership of 222 runs with Bert Sutcliffe. Early in 1956, Reid assumed the New Zealand captaincy during the West Indies series. In the fourth test, he scored his best home test score of 84 and led New Zealand to its first test victory. If there was a regret about Reid’s career, it was that the one-day game had not been developed in his time. Reid’s status in world cricket was recognised in 1965 when he was made captain of a World XI against England in 1965. Reid was later a New Zealand selector, selector and coach of Northern Transvaal and subsequently became a member of the International Cricket Council’s panel of match referees.

1956 Norman Read

One of the distinctive images of the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 was of the smiling New Zealander – or, as he described himself, “Pommy Kiwi” – Norman Read, winner of the Olympic Games’ longest footrace, the 50km walk. Read with the big No. 10 on his chest obscuring the Silver Fern, the knotted handkerchief around his neck, the rolling gait that characterises the walkers and, on the last lap of the Melbourne Cricket Ground track, the huge grin of success and happiness. Read, who hadn’t long emigrated from England, had to overcome red tape to qualify for New Zealand, then had to convince the Olympic selectors he was good enough to be in the team. Unwanted in the initial selection, Read went to Australia on a competitive odyssey that was arduous and impressive enough for him to be added. He led the field from the stadium, with New Zealanders wondering how long he’d stay there, and he led them back in again more than four hours later, with the same New Zealanders rejoicing with their new athletics champion. Read competed at the Rome Olympics four years later and won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Jamaica a decade after his Olympic success. He died in 1994 of a suspected heart attack while competing in a veteran’s cycle race in the Waikato.

1957 Philippa Gould

New Zealand women who have broken world records are a rare breed and the rarest of them all was Philippa Gould, who broke four. Among the must-see sporting entertainment in Auckland through the 1950’s was the swimming at the open-air Newmarket pool, especially when “Pip” Gould was competing. She swam at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and ended her career at the Empire Games in Cardiff in 1958, but it was in between when she gained her greatest fame. On one day in January 1957, she set world records for the 200 metres and 220 yards backstroke and 14 months later, in March 1958, she repeated the dose with new world marks in the 100 metres and 110 yards backstroke, the only swimming world long-course marks to be set by a New Zealander.

1958 Murray Halberg

Even in an assembly of the greats of sport, there are some who rank higher in public perception than others. Such a man is Murray Halberg, who won the Sportsman of the Year Award for winning the three miles at the Empire Games in Cardiff, but whose feats spanned more than a decade on running tracks and whose deeds transcend sport. Halberg competed at the Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954 and the Olympics in Melbourne in 1956 before his Cardiff gold medal, but his greatest success was his winning the 5000 metres at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960. He also won the three miles at the Empire Games in Perth in 1962, set world two and three miles records and was the first New Zealander, in Dublin in 1958, to run a mile in under four minutes. But it has been Halberg’s selfless dedication to the welfare of children with disabilities in New Zealand, manifested through the Halberg Trust, that has won him his greater fame and his higher accolades, including a knighthood in 1987.

1959 Don Clarke

Don Clarke was a big man in stature and an even bigger man in enduring reputation as one of the great fullbacks and goalkickers that New Zealand rugby has had. He was introduced to the All Blacks in the third test of the tumultuous series against South Africa in 1956 and he’d barely been on the field when he landed his first goal, the first of 340 he kicked for New Zealand in a career that encompassed 89 matches (31 tests) until 1964. In 1959, Clarke’s unerring and powerful boot kicked six penalty goals at Carisbrook to beat the British Isles by 18 points to 17. He was not just a goalkicker, his power being as much an asset in general play. Clarke’s 207 points in tests lasted as the record until 1988. Clarke, together with his family, moved to South Africa in 1977. He died in Johannesburg in December 2002.