PART 2
The 1953 tour of Australia by the USA All Stars
Rugby League administrators are not generally known for their devil-may-care approach to spreading the game to new countries or for taking financial risks to help promote the game, but the nearly forgotten League tour of Australia by the American All Stars was both financially risky and incredibly bold in promoting the game. The most incredible fact related to this tour is that not one of the Americans had ever played the game. In fact, only one member of the touring party had ever seen the game played before they arrived in Australia.
The idea for the tour came to the American tour organiser, Mike Dimitro, when he witnessed a game of Rugby League between Australian troops in Papua/Niu Guinea during WW II. Dimitro was a twice All-American gridiron player when in college and went on to become a professional gridiron player after the war.
Dimitro gathered together a diverse group of athletes, mostly from around his home state of California. The average age of the tourists was 23 and the oldest man was 29. The group came from many different backgrounds; Bob Buckley was a 20 year old student from Brooklyn University; Harold Han was an Hawaiian native who played gridiron and studied at a Californian University; prop Xavier Mena took leave from his highly paid career as an architect to tour; Bill Albans was an Olympic standard athlete who had competed for USA and was said to be able to run the 100 yards in 9.5 seconds; Al Abajian was a medical student in his last semester at USC; halfback Ted Grossman was a movie stuntman and body double for Clark Gable; lock Jack Bonetti was a Catholic All-American and had played Union for three years at Stanford University; deadly accurate goal kicker and 5/8 Gary Kerkorian had played Union for two years with Pittsburg Athletics. Dimitro stated that all his men had played Union and several, including himself, were professional gridiron players.
The American team was the biggest and heaviest team seen in Australia to that point, with only three of the forwards weighing in at under 95 kg. Props Xavier Mena, Pat Henry and Vince Jones were all around 110 kg and all over 190 cm tall. This pack would compare in size to a modern day pack, but were veritable giants when compared to Australian players of the era.
Controversy surrounded the tour from the outset. In Australia the press were speculating that the entire Australian Board of Control, including Harry Flegg and Harold Matthews who are still regarded as legendary administrators, had placed their heads on the chopping block by supporting this tour, and club officials were talking of the heavy financial responsibility the Board had taken on and complaining of being left in the dark by officials. Speculation in the press reached fever pitch when Pan-American airlines announced that they had cancelled the tickets of the touring party because Mike Dimitro had not met a payment deadline, but Dimitro switched bookings to Canadian Pacific Airlines and it later became apparent that he had sold his Cadillac for $US5000 and mortgaged his house to guarantee the US$4500 per man tour costs (Dimitro was relatively well off, earning $US7000 a year from playing professional gridiron and working as a college lecturer in the off season). The touring party was supposed to number 22, but only 18 players were in the original party, although they were joined by two others a week into the tour. Before the tour the team had been practicing for 3 months, having up to 5 sessions a week, and had received coaching in the rules of Rugby League from a former English player, Frank Clark.
The tour began with several well publicised training runs and a trial game against an army side. The tourists impressed all who watched with their athleticism and handling skills as well as the power and aggression of their forward play. The American forwards were said to approach the line like bulldozers and to never submit to a tackle without putting their shoulder into the tackling players. The most novel aspect of their play was the so-called pitch pass, where they would throw the ball up to 50 yards across the field with deadly accuracy to a player who would take the pass at full speed. The Americans began their training at Coogee Oval, but had to move to a private venue because of the numbers of press and public at the training sessions made it impossible to train in peace. An Australian coach, Norman Latchem Robinson, and a leading referee, Jack OBrien, helped train the Americans by instructing them on rule interpretations. From the very first the American were treated like celebrities and were constantly signing autographs and being swamped by hoards of girls, who the Americans described as awful young.
The first game played by the team was considered to be a practice game and it was not played before a paying audience. The All Stars defeated the Royal Australian Engineers team by 41-10. The game was refereed by Jack OBrien who showed the Americans some latitude in rule interpretations, but journalists who watched the match were very impressed by the ball handling skills of the All Stars, comparing their passing game to the French tourists of 1951. The game was confined to 60 minutes play, in which time the All Stars scored nine tries to two, with centre Al E Kirkland scoring a hat trick of tries. In the days after this trial they trained with the South Sydney team at Redfern and split up into two teams by mixing with the Souths players. Journalists watching the practice sessions were very impressed with the potential of the gridiron pitch pass employed by the All Stars players and with the obvious potential of Al E Kirkland.
Three days later they played their first official tour match against Southern Districts in Canberra. The All Stars won 34-25 after trailing 20-8 at halftime. The crowd for the match was between 7000 and 8000 and star of the match was centre Al E Kirkland who scored four tries and set up two others (he went on to play professionally in Australia and England in future years). Winger Bill Albans suffered concussion in the first half and was taken to hospital, but he only missed one game due to his injury. Although replacement players were not allowed in the game at that time the All Stars were allowed to replace Albans at halftime, and special dispensation was made for them to replace injured players at halftime for the rest of the tour. The Americans impressed all with the clean style of their play and long accurate passes. They remained to sign hundreds of autographs after the game. The game was again refereed by Jack OBrien who allowed considerable latitude in the play the ball area. One review of the game said that the Americans spent the first half learning and the second half playing. A quote from that review was; on being passed the ball they gave the impression they did not know whether to kick it, pass it, run with it, or eat it, Despite their shakey start, they gave a sparkling display of attacking football in the second half to record a comfortable win.
On the Sunday the All Stars lost to a combined Country side by 35-9 in front of a crowd of 11,787 at Wollongong Showground. The game was described as fast and spectacular with winger Bill Albans said to have pace and a mighty sidestep that would have beaten any player in the league. The game was described as the best performance by the American so far in the press. Country included six previous Kangaroo tourists but the All Stars were able to hold them to a 9-20 scoreline till 15 minutes before the end, when injuries started to take a heavy toll on the team.
The next game was against a Sydney Metropolitan side that contained six current Kangaroo representatives and was played on a Saturday at the Sydney Cricket Ground in front of a crowd of 32,654. The captain of the Sydney side was Clive Churchill, who many now believe was the greatest player to ever play the game. The match was again refereed by Jack OBrien, who did his level best to overlook indiscretions by the Americans that would have drawn a penalty for any other side. After the game it was reported that the Sydney players regarded the game as a picnic match and that the scoreline of 62-41 in favour of the Aussies was the highest ever score in an International fixture. This was the fourth game in just two weeks for the All Stars and injury was already taking its toll on the squad. Regular hooker Sid Walker, fullback George Kauffman and winger Bill Albans were late withdrawals from the team for their first big match of the tour, while goal kicker and star 5/8 Gary Kerkorian played with an injury. Two players, Bob Buckley and Harold Han, who had joined the squad just the night before after a long flight from America, both played full games, but it became obvious at times during the game that the two had no idea of the rules with both of them standing off side in defence for much of the game. They replaced fullback Kauffman and winger Albans in the side. Despite their lack of knowledge of the rules, both managed to score and show themselves to be strong runners of the ball. The best player for the All Stars was again centre Al E Kirkland who scored three tries with his brilliant crashing, twisting running. The Aussies eased up when in the lead, and much of the crowd was aware that the game was more of an exhibition than a full blown contest by the end of the game.
On the Wednesday the All Stars arrived in Dubbo where they went down in a hard fought 24-21 scoreline to Western Districts in front of a crowd of 7000. The All Stars led for most of the game, but were headed with just five minutes on the clock. The Americans made liberal use of the move for which they were becoming famous, the gridiron pitch pass which was reported to move the ball from one side of the field to the other with deadly accuracy. By the end of the game the Western Division players were imitating the pass themselves.
On Saturday the team travelled to Newcastle where they met a side weakened by the inclusion of five of Newcastles best in the NSW team to play Queensland. In the press before the game it was said that the All Stars would outweigh the Newcastle side by an average of 7 pounds a man and that the strength and robustness of the Americans was their main advantage. The Americans were said to be poor at scrummaging and had poor positional play amongst the backs, but were very good at retaining possession once they got hold of the ball. Mike Dimitro predicted a good showing against the Newcastle side and said that the All Stars were improving rapidly. The All Stars won the game by 19-10 in front of a crowd of 14,160 at Number One Sportsground, which was a record for the venue at the time. The Newcastle press were savage on their team, saying they played like champions in cotton wool and that the visitors proceeded systematically to give Newcastle a beating. The All Stars were said to be big and agile men who used their weight well and tackled splendidly. It was said that many of the players would be labelled great if they kept at the game and Harold Han, Bob Buckley, Gary Kerkorian, Sol Naumu and Al Adajian were all lauded as having the natural ability to make any state side.
The All Stars left Newcastle by train for Coffs Harbour the next morning where they played on the Wednesday before heading for Brisbane where they were to play Queensland on the Sunday. They lost to North and North Coast Divisions by 26-18 after leading by 13-10 at halftime. Bill Albans was playing fullback and his defencive lapses and the penalties he conceded were said to have cost the team 13 points. The referee, Aub Oxford from Sydney, took a very hard line with the Americans and made them earn all their points. Bill Albans had become an expert on the rules after his five games played and twice got penalised for arguing with the ref.
At this point the twenty man squad had been playing two games a week since they arrived in the country and had travelled all over NSW by train in between matches. Despite the punishing schedule they had been keeping, and the fact that seven members of the twenty man squad required medical treatment in the days before the game, they produced the best game of the tour against a strong Queensland State side, although Queensland were without eight of their best, who had been selected for Australia to play New Zealand. The final score was 39-36 to Queensland, but the All Stars had led by 29-16 at halftime. This was also the first big game in which the Americans did not receive any leniency from the referee. The game was refereed by Queenslander Frank Ballard, and many were claiming after the game that he allowed two Queensland tries that were illegal. Gary Kerkorian kicked nine from nine with the boot and he was quickly establishing a reputation as a gifted goal kicker, having already scored 98 points in eight matches. His kicking style was described as the simplest seen in Rugby League with him simply placing the ball and stepping back a few steps and kicking them over from all angles with minimal delay. The Queensland game saw the Americans continue with the barging forward play they had adopted so successfully against Newcastle and four of the six All Star tries came from forwards. The wing/centre combination of Han and Naumu, both native Hawaiians, were said to have been outstanding in the second half. This game was filmed for American TV (it was another three years before Australia had TV).
The punishing tour schedule started to tell in the next game, and a new element was added to make life more difficult for the Americans, biased home town refs. The All Stars spent a few punishing days on the road before arriving to play a 17-17 draw against Far North Queensland in Cairns on the Wednesday. In the dying minutes of the game the referee awarded a penalty to Far North Queensland on the All Stars 25 yard line, and all the American players hotly disputed the call. While the Americans were arguing the Far North hooker took a tap penalty and went over for a try. The ref awarded the try, although he had not seen it scored.
The next game was against North Queensland in Townsville. The All Stars lost by 38-17 in a very unimpressive game. The North Queensland team won by totally dominating the scrums and possession, but the large crowd was said to be most impressed by the glittering footwork of the All Stars when they did finally get some possession. The All Stars suffered their strangest injury of the tour when lock forward Jack Bonetti was diagnosed as suffering from polio and had to be left behind in quarantine for a month. Up till that time Bonetti had played in every game and was said to have been the most consistant of the American forwards on the tour.
On July 1st the All Stars went down to Central West Queensland by 26-21 in front of a crowd of 1600 at Longreach.
The All Stars next played against Central Queensland Coast at Rockhampton on July 5th, and went down by 33-26. The best players for the All Stars were centres Harold Han and Al E Kirkland who both had outstanding second halves to nearly overcome a 27-5 halftime deficit.
Two days later, on July 7th, they were back in Brisbane and went down by 39-26 to Brisbane Metropolitan in what was described as a drab game in front of 7000 spectators. The All Stars were described as weary from their strenuous tour and seemed unable to break into a run at times. The highlight of the game was a kicking duel between rival fullbacks Norm Pope and George Kauffman, which Kauffman had the better of for much of the game. Most of the team was suffering from infectious boils which they had picked up in the tropical north and only 17 of the squad were now fit to play, and even those were described as footsore and leg-weary during the game. The All Stars wanted to switch this game to a night game under floodlights at the Exhibition Ground and stated that they were losing money on the tour so far, but Brisbane officials insisted the game be played at the Brisbane Cricket Ground.
A mid-week game against Ipswich was cancelled to allow the tourists a chance to recover from their gruelling schedule.
Their next game was against Toowoomba in Toowoomba on July 15th. The All Stars lost by 29-15 but were said to have made a very good game of it with a strong display in the forwards. Olympic sprinter Bill Albans had his best game of the tour with one length of the field try in which he left several opponents standing flat footed in defence. Injuries again took their toll with Albans, Al D Kirkland (second row) and Harold Han leaving the field and the All Stars finishing the game with eleven men (Han was replaced at halftime). Gary Kerkorian had his first off day with the boot on the tour, only kicking three from nine attempts, but all his other work from 5/8 was first class, showing he was one of the stars of the side.
The last game of the Queensland leg of their tour was a 33-33 draw against Wide Bay at Maryborough on July 19th. The All Stars led by 25-8 at halftime but tired and sloppy play in the second half cost them a win to finish their Queensland tour.
In the next three days they made the journey to the south of New South Wales where they lost by 30-14 on a wet and slippery ground to Riverina at Gundagai.
By the following Saturday they had made their way back to Sydney where they took on a New South Wales side in front of the biggest crowd of the tour at the Sydney Cricket Ground (over 60,000). The All Stars were boosted by the inclusion of four Queensland players who were all returning from the Australian tour of New Zealand. The four players were chosen by the All Stars Australian coach Norm Robinson. They were centre Ken McCaffery, lock Mick Crocker, second row Brian Davis and hooker Alan Hornery. This match saw the nine best of the Americans and four Queenslanders play a very competitive game against a full strength New South Wales side, proving that many of the Americans were world class players. They lost by 27-18 and promptly cancelled a match set down for the Wednesday against a team to be decided. Mike Dimitro stated I want my team to have a weeks rest before we go to New Zealand.
The New Zealand leg of the tour saw them win three of the eight matches they played, but in the majority of games they fielded up to four local players to make up the numbers.
Results for the New Zealand leg were;
AA v Auckland 28-54
AA v Taranaki 21-18
AA v Wellington 17-18
AA v West Coast 10-27
AA v Canterbury 8-39
AA v Northland 25-6
AA v Maoris 26-40
AA v Waikato 22-19
The tour was flawed from the beginning due to the cost of airfares from America to Australia. This huge financial burden limited the touring party to twenty men and meant the team had to play an enormous number of matches to cover costs. Mike Dimitro sold his car and mortgaged his house to put up the money needed to buy return air tickets for the players before the tour could begin, which meant he was personally owed $US20,000 that had to be made back before any profits could be distributed amongst the players. The All Stars played more games than the French and English teams that had toured in the preceeding years, and the French and English squads had both contained 26 playing members as compared to the All Stars roster of 20. The other main factor in their lack of success was, of course, their inexperience, but the fact that they were bigger, stronger, faster and even more skilful in many aspects of the game than their opponents made them a very exciting team to watch. In early games they were nursed along by referees, but as the tour progressed this became less and less evident, and many independent observers reported they were getting the worst end of the referees in many of the Queensland country matches.
Injuries and illness played a major role, and this became even more crucial to the performance of the team due to the small size of the squad. For many games they struggled to name 13 fit players and many of their worst results were accompanied by reports of injuries taken into the game, influenza, infectious boils, badly skinned knees (something they all suffered due to not having played in shorts before) and even polio in the case of Jack Bonetti.
Mike Dimitro and coach Norm Robinson made the point in one press interview that the team was getting beaten by their own mistakes and inexperience rather than by other teams besting them in the core skills such as tackling and attacking moves. The two weakest areas of their game were scrummaging and cover defence, which are skills that require years of practice to develop, while the strongest aspects of their game were forward play in both attack and defence, and backing up and passing in attack.
Many of the players could have been stars in the game of Rugby League with a little more experience, but only one seems to have taken up the opportunity. Al E Kirkland was undoubtedly the standout player for the All Stars and went on to play two seasons for Parramatta in Sydney and a season for Leeds in the UK. To this day he is still the best credentialed American to ever play the game of Rugby League.
Players
Abajian, Al wing, halfback
Albans, Bill wing, fullback
Bonetti, Jack second row forward, lock
Buckley, Bob wing, centre
Demirjian, Ed - winger
Dimitro, Mike second row forward
Drakalvitch, S utility forward
Grossman, Ted - halfback
Han, Harold centre, wing
Henry, Pat prop, hooker
Jones, Vince - prop
Kauffman, George fullback
Kerkorian, Gary 5/8, centre
Kirkland, Al D (Alfred) lock forward
Kirkland, Al E (Alvin) centre, 5/8
Mandulay, Fran - prop
Naumu, Sol fullback, wing, centre
Mena, Xavier prop
Walker, Sidney - hooker
