from the RL 1908 site, his dad started the boxing troupe and sharman jr took over
Jimmy Sharman Jr.
In 1934 a famous name was welcomed to Western Suburbs first grade team - Jimmy Sharman Jr.
He was the son of the famous Jimmy Sharman, whose travelling boxing troupe is a part of Australian lore.
Sharman's colourful troupe began in 1911 at Ariah Park, near Temora and ended at Shepparton in Victoria in 1971. Jim junior had taken over in 1955. Sydney's Royal Easter Show was never the same after Sharman Jr. was forced to abandon their annual visit.
Young Jimmy was born and bred in Narrandera, in the Riverina. His battling parents wanted an education for him and sent him to boarding school at St Patrick's, Goulburn for six years and then to Sydney's St Josephs GPS school for a further two years.
Jim was a member of St Joeys winning Rugby Union side in 1932 and the following year took the path virtually all rugby-conscious Joeys boys took in those days and played for inner-city Drummoyne.
He played for Metropolitan and NSW that year, but without a job and feeling neglected by the Rugby Union, he put his leather coat over his playing gear after the NSW match, walked out and went home to Narrandera.
He arrived home in June and played Australian Rules for the rest of the season.
The following year, Wests' patron Len Plasto heard of Sharman's talents and brought him to Sydney for trials. Current fullback Frank McMillan was getting older and was away playing representative football for much of the time. Sharman was seen as a likely heir to Wests' fullback throne.
The day Sharman received a letter to trial with Wests, another had also arrived from South Melbourne Australian Football Club. "But I didn't like Melbourne, so the choice was easy," Sharman recounted.
He played four matches in first grade in '34, and earned a premiership blazer. By 1937 he had become Wests' regular fullback.
Sharman chosen to play for Possibles versus Probables, Sydney Seconds and Sydney Firsts, all in the 1937 season. They were virtual Kangaroo selection trials.
Yet Sharman missed selection on that Kangaroo tour , as did all his Wests' teammates. For the first time, no Western Suburbs player was selected in a Kangaroo touring team.
Sharman went on to captain Wests in 1938 and into the 1939 season, before resigning early in the season. Later in the year he went to New Zealand with Ray Stehr's touring professionals side.
Sharman also has the distinction of having kicked a field goal on every metropolitan first grade ground in use at the time.
When he agreed to write for The Daily Telegraph in 1939, it was the end of his football career. He wrote:
"I played every game, and missed just one training session in 1939, and I got £17/17/7 the whole season."
"I mean, we would have played for nothing in those days - the club spirit was fantastic."
"I loved the blokes I played with. But I was offered a lot more from the Telegraph, just to write - and I couldn't do both, so I quit football."
The colourful careers of the mighty Sharmans and their touring boxing troupe covered seven decades. Regulations instituted to safeguard boxers were the death-knell of the Sharman show. "Fighters could only fight once a week and if you got knocked out you couldn't fight for a month. Under those conditions, we couldn't keep going," said Jim.
Reproduced from "Clouds of Dust, Buckets of Blood"
The story of the Western Suburbs Rugby League Magpies by Gary Lester (1995)
RL1908 Biography
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