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Arthur Henry "Artie" Beetson OAM (21 January 1945 – 1 December 2011 Rugby league great Arthur Beetson dead after suffering heart attack while exercising article at dailytelegraph.com.au) was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. He represented Australia, New South Wales and Queensland all between 1964 and 1981. His main position was at . Beetson became the first Indigenous Australian to captain Australia in any sport and is frequently cited as the best post-war forward in Australian rugby league history. He also had an extensive coaching career, spanning the 1970s to the 1990s, coaching Australia, Queensland, Sydney Roosters, Redcliffe Dolphins and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.
He is also remembered as man of great humility who cared deeply about his people and culture. The Arthur Beetson Foundation was so named to honour Beetson, and the Arthur Beetson Medal is awarded to rugby league players who show both outstanding skills and similar personal qualities to Beetson.
His skill as a footballer was matched only by his skill as an eater, earning nicknames such as 'Meat Pie Artie'. He was known and immortalised by his performance of eating 11 hot dogs before a gala dinner for the Australian team in 1973. Beetson captained Eastern Suburbs to the 1974 and 1975 premierships. During this period Beetson also continued playing with distinction for Australia and in 1974 he was named as Rugby League Week's player of the year. During the 1976 NSWRFL season, Beetson captained Eastern Suburbs to victory in their unofficial 1976 World Club Challenge match against British champions St Helens in Sydney. This Easts team would go down as one of the greatest club sides in rugby league history. Beetson joined the Parramatta Eels in 1979.
After stepping down as Queensland coach following the 1990 State of Origin series loss to NSW, Beetson became part of the ABC's commentary team in 1991 for their Saturday Afternoon League telecasts alongside chief caller, former Western Suburbs winger Warren Boland, as well as his former Eastern Suburbs and Parramatta teammate John Peard and Canterbury-Bankstown media liaison Debbie Spillane, both of whom worked on the sidelines.
Beetson coached the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks for the 1992 and 1993 seasons, where he enjoyed mixed success. Part-way through the 1994 NSWRL season Beetson briefly replaced the sacked Mark Murray as coach of the Eastern Suburbs Roosters. Beetson has also spent many years as a recruitment officer for both Eastern Suburbs and Queensland.
In the post-1999 NRL season an Aboriginal side managed by Arthur Beetson defeated the Papua New Guinean national team. He then pushed, unsuccessfully, for an Australia Day match against the Australian national team. He also appeared at the Beenleigh (QLD) lions JRLFC as an Assistant Coach to the Beenleigh Lions JRLFC under 18s (2009) alongside Michael Hansen (Coach) before his untimely passing.
Beetson is often regarded as Australia's best ever forward, and in 2000 he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal, then in 2001 the Centenary Medal "for service to Australian society through the sport of rugby league". He was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2003. In May 2004 his book, Big Artie: The Autobiography was published. Also that year he became the seventh selected post-war "Immortal" of the Australian game with Clive Churchill, Johnny Raper, Reg Gasnier, Bob Fulton, Graeme Langlands and Wally Lewis.
In February 2008, Beetson was named in a list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. Beetson went on to be named in the front-row in Australian rugby league's Team of the Century. Announced on 17 April 2008, the team is the panel's majority choice for each of the thirteen starting positions and four interchange players. Beetson chose to boycott the presentation ceremony, stating that he did not agree with the direction rugby league is taking. In June 2008, he was chosen in the Queensland Rugby League's Team of the Century at second-row. In 2008, rugby league in Australia's centenary year, Beetson was named at second-row forward in the Toowoomba and South West Team of the Century. He was made a life member of the Sydney Cricket Ground and a plaque in the Walk of Honour there commemorates his career. He is a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
As part of the Centenary of League celebrations in 2008, Beetson was retrospectively awarded the Clive Churchill Medal as Man of the Match in the 1974 Grand final.
In 2009 Beetson was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame.
In 2010 a program was founded and named in honour of Arthur Beetson, the ARTIE Academy (Achieving Results Through Indigenous Education). An inspiration and role model for his people, Arthur was resolute in his beliefs about the absolute need for young Indigenous Australians to be educated, to finish school and to be employed. The ARTIE Academy operates with an innovative, high expectation, consistent and positive mindset. ARTIE is an academy that students are proud to be a part of. An academy that expects them to achieve to the best of their ability. An academy that will support them in times of need, but not accept excuses for a lack of commitment. ARTIE inspires its participants, encourages and informs them of their progress and celebrates their successes. The program is run by the FOGS (Former Origin Greats) organisation and funded under the "Closing the Gap" initiative. The program continues to operate in schools around Queensland.
Beetson's Queensland State of Origin number 11 jersey was "Retired number" in 2014.
The Arthur Beetson Foundation was created to engage the community "to empower Indigenous Australians to better outcomes in health, education, sport, employment and business development", and the Arthur Beetson Medal honours rugby league players who have distinguished themselves who have shown not only skill on the field but some of the qualities embodied by Beetson and cares deeply about their people.
On 16 December 2023, a Google Doodle was made to honour Beetson's life and career; the date was chosen because it marked 50 years since his appointment as captain a mainstream Australian sports team.
While the family congratulated the three sporting identities who were nominated to have grandstands named after them (Ron Coote, Johnny Warren and Sir Nicholas Shehadie), they criticised the proposal to name a grandstand Garrison in recognition of locally based British troops from the 1850s. Anthony Mundine and Megan Davis also condemned the decision not to put forward Beetson's name for the honour.
Chairman of the SCG Trust heritage committee Maurice Newman said that Beetson "didn't make the cut" because he was a Queenslander, rejecting the assertion of it being a "snub" and questioned why there wasn't a grandstand named after Beetson in his home state at a venue such as Lang Park. That reasoning was criticised by NRL historian David Middleton, and former players Peter Wynn and Mick Cronin. Rugby league commentator Ray Hadley also criticised the decision after an attempted compromise with an offer put forward to have Beetson honoured with a statue instead of a grandstand.
In March 2022, it was announced that the decision not to name a stand at the new Sydney Football Stadium had been overturned by New South Wales sports minister Stuart Ayres. Beetson's son Mark said the naming of a stand after his father would be a proud moment for his family who described his father as being "up there" with the likes of Cathy Freeman and Lionel Rose as one of Australia's indigenous sporting icons. Mark Beetson also thanked The Daily Telegraph and its readers for lobbying for the change.
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Categories: 1945 Births, 2011 Deaths, Australia National Rugby League Team Captains, Australia National Rugby League Team Players, Australian Rugby League Players, Australia National Rugby League Team Coaches, Australian Aboriginal Rugby League Team Coaches, Balmain Tigers Players, Clive Churchill Medal Winners, Cronulla-sutherland Sharks Coaches, Hull Kingston Rovers Players, Indigenous Australian Rugby League Players, New South Wales Rugby League Team Players, Parramatta Eels Players, People From Roma, Queensland, Queensland Rugby League State Of Origin Captains, Queensland Rugby League State Of Origin Coaches, Recipients Of The Australian Sports Medal, Recipients Of The Medal Of The Order Of Australia, Redcliffe Dolphins Coaches, Redcliffe Dolphins Players, Rugby League Players From Queensland, Rugby League Props, Rugby League Second-rows, Sport Australia Hall Of Fame Inductees, Sydney Roosters Coaches, Sydney Roosters Captains, 20th-century Australian Sportsmen
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