New Zealand Sport Hall of Fame Inductees

Popularly known as the Kiwis, they became one of the most influential and significant teams in rugby history.

The Original All Blacks established the patterns for all to follow, showing that while the birth of rugby may have been in Britain, its real development was in New Zealand.

They were described, by 1905 hooker George Tyler no less, as the weakest team New Zealand had fielded.

It was fitting, given that New Zealand was one of the countries that pushed hardest for the introduction of the World Cup, that the first cup was won by the All Blacks.

Fred Allen had a distinguished career as a rugby player, including being All Black captain, but it was as a coach that he gained an unmatched status.

Chris Amon was regarded as one of the best drivers never to win a world championship Formula One grand prix.

For years, New Zealand cyclists were highly competitive without breaking through at the highest level. And then along came Gary Anderson.

Dick Arnst was a well-known successful cyclist early this century but it was in his second sporting career, as a single sculler, that he became nationally and internationally known.

Anne Audain is a fighter.

When multi-sport was in its formative years in the 1980s, Erin Baker was without peer in gaining success over a variety of distances and disciplines to such an extent that her feats continue to stand the test of time.

Individually and together, Philippa Baker-Hogan and Brenda Lawson were world leaders in rowing in the early 1990s. Between them, they won 47 national premier titles and Baker-Hogan became the first female New Zealander to win a world title when she won the lightweight single sculls in 1991.

He founded rugby league in New Zealand and was one of the instigators of international league, organising the first tests in Australia, England and Wales.

One of the world’s celebrated aviation pioneers of the 1930s, Batten forsook a promising career as a concert pianist to find her glory in the sky.

During a seven-year international career, Baxter played a record 94 games for the Kiwis, including 29 tests, and was reckoned to be the most punishing centre in world league.

From the time in 1971 when Peter Blake won the line honours in the inaugural Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro race, a year hardly went by without him adding to his sailing honours board.

When wrestling was at the height of its popularity from the 1930s through to the 1950s, Maynell Strathmore Blomfield was its high priest.

Chris Bouzaid was one of the yachtsmen who set the course for New Zealand to gain such international renown in ocean racing.

Think speedway and the names of Ronnie Moore, Barry Briggs and Ivan Mauger come automatically.

Bill Broughton was a master jockey who set the standards to which others aspired.

One of three brothers to play rugby for New Zealand, Brownlie is regarded as one of the greatest loose forwards the All Blacks have had.

Marise Chamberlain was undoubtedly an athlete ahead of her time.

Sir Bob Charles was the first New Zealander to have won one of golf's majors "the British Open at Lytham and St Anne's in 1963" and for 40 years was the only left-hander to have won a major.

Though his records have been broken, Don Clarke’s status as a supreme All Black fullback remains undimmed.

In a sport in which New Zealanders, or southern hemisphere skiers generally, barely leave an imprint in the snow, she was for a time the best in the world.

Even 50 years after his career, Cooke was still being described as one of the most instinctively brilliant backs seen in New Zealand, even by people who had never seen him play.

Known as “The Bull”, Cowie was New Zealand’s first great test bowler and ranked with the world’s best.

Graeme Crosby had a love for speed that was manifested in a brief but spectacularly successful international motorcycling career.

Sir Lance Cross had a widely diverse sporting career, from basketball administrator and national coach to a seat on the most powerful body in world sport, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee.

New Zealand has produced some fine batsmen, among them Bert Sutcliffe, Martin Donnelly and Stewie Dempster, but knowledgeable judges rate Martin Crowe the best of them all.

The Mr Versatile of New Zealand sport in the late 19th century, he was directly responsible for New Zealand and Australia getting in on the ground floor of the Olympic Games (even though New Zealanders didn’t compete at a Games until 1908).

The challenge, to be the first in recorded history, to swim Cook Strait was likened to other sporting challenges such as Roger Bannister’s first sub-four minute mile and Sir Edmund Hillary’s conquest of Everest.

One of the legendary coach drivers in New Zealand in the 19th century was a Tasmanian called Devine.

The bald figures of achievement hardly do justice to Dame Susan Devoy: 11 years of international squash, world champion four times, British Open champion eight times, New Zealand Open champion eight times.

He was said to have everything as a test batsman — style and grace, confidence and determination, success and modesty.

Sandra Edge's meritorious mark on New Zealand netball began in 1982 when she captained the national under 21 team at the age of 19.

The success of the New Zealand rowing eight at the Munich Olympics in 1972, the same eight that had won the European championship the year before, was one of those wins that seem to transcend sport.

New Zealand has had golden moments in world rowing and 1982 was one of them when the eight won the world title on the lake at Lucerne in Switzerland.

Ellis in a career that lasted from 1924 until 1961 set records that today’s jockeys struggle to match.

Tom Ellison was a remarkable figure in the early days of New Zealand rugby and one of the most enduringly influential the game has known.

Bruce Farr is New Zealand’s best-known yacht designer and could also lay claim to being the world’s best-known – or even the best.

Rita Fatialofa played netball and softball for New Zealand.

No New Zealander had been acclaimed a winner at the world athletics championships until Thursday, August 7 1997, at the Olympic Stadium in Athens. That was when Beatrice Faumuinā threw the discus further than anyone else and was crowned world champion.

When Ian Ferguson first competed at an Olympic Games in 1976 and even again when he was one of the tiny team in Moscow in 1980, few would have seen him as one of New Zealand’s greatest sportsmen.

Sean Fitzpatrick played more tests for the All Blacks than anyone else, captained them more than anyone else.

Sidney Milton Going played twenty-nine test matches for New Zealand between 1967 and 1977 and during his decade at the top, he was regarded as one of the most renowned halfbacks to play for the All Blacks. Photo courtesy of Peter Bush.

By the time she was 17, Philippa Gould’s swimming career was behind her but she’d already earned herself enduring fame in New Zealand sport.

Respected throughout the league world as a tough, skilful forward, Graham played 26 tests for New Zealand from 1977, when he was 21, until 1988.

The third of the single sculling elite New Zealand was able to boast before and after World War I, Hadfield could also claim an Olympic medal.

It was no coincidence that when Sir Richard Hadlee was making his mark on the cricket fields of the world, so was New Zealand; that the national team’s days in the sun were in large part because of his efforts.

Sir Murray Halberg is one of the outstanding figures in New Zealand sport.

William Hamilton is famed throughout the world for being the man who first developed a jet engine for boats, but it was far from his only first.

Joan (now Harnett-Kindley) was one of the outstanding players who helped transform the image of “basketball” as a schoolgirls’ game to netball as a fast, entertaining international sport.

Heeney was a boxer who won an enduring fame not so much for what he did, but for what he attempted to do: win the world professional heavyweight championship.

Stan Hill played basketball for New Zealand for 14 years, nine of them as captain, and was head and shoulders, sometimes literally, above other New Zealand basketballers.

Oliver Hollis was the outstanding New Zealand woman golfer in two distinct eras.

In a sporting career that spanned six decades, Morrie Holmes became the greatest driver in New Zealand harness racing that the sport has seen.

The Commonwealth Games 200 metres backstroke champion in 1978, Hurring was denied a chance to extend his success to the Olympic arena by swimming’s withdrawal for political reasons from the Games in Moscow in 1980.

Naomi James suffered from seasickness but she went to sea. She was a private person and disliked crowds, but she became a world celebrity, feted wherever she went.

Ron Jarden was one of the outstanding wings in New Zealand rugby and his scoring ratio – 145 tries in 134 first-class matches – is all the more noteworthy considering a lack of emphasis on back play during his era.

Stacey Jones used to be known as “The Little General” for good reasons: he was little among the big men of rugby league, but he was the general who dictated the strategy and the tactics for the teams he graced.

Stuart Jones is unquestionably one of the finest golfers produced by New Zealand, a name to stand alongside the greats of the game.

Through a combination of a love of horses and a stubborn streak that wouldn’t accept the word “no”, Linda Jones became a national celebrity in the 1970s.

Michael Jones burst onto world rugby when he scored the opening try in the first World Cup in 1987 in his first game for New Zealand.

Don Jowett became the only New Zealand track sprinter to win a gold medal at a major games when he won the 220 yards at the Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954.

Barbara Kendall began international competition when she was still a teenager and for the next 20 or so years, there was no one to compare.

Bruce Kendall not only achieved personal success at the pinnacle of his sport, he also showed and inspired others to follow in his wake

He earned his niche in New Zealand sporting history by becoming the first New Zealander to win an Olympic medal.

John Kirwan was one of the most devastating wing threequarters to play rugby for New Zealand; when in top form, he was an irresistible try-scorer as his 35 tries in 63 test matches indicates (plus another 32 tries in non-test matches).

His first sporting love was cricket and Lay played for Taranaki against the 1928 Australian and 1930 MCC teams.

For nine years, Chris Lewis was New Zealand’s leading tennis player and among many fine moments in his career, there was none finer than the magical fortnight in 1983 when he played his way through to the final at Wimbledon.

When the names of New Zealand's greatest Olympians are remembered, that of Danyon Loader is of the first rank.

Jonah Lomu was a player beyond the normal measures of achievement in sport. They were for other people; Lomu was unique.

Lowry was one of the dominant figures of New Zealand cricket in its formative test years.

Arthur Lydiard was renowned as an innovative, trend-setting athletics coach, particularly of middle distance and distance runners.

One of New Zealand’s most successful Olympians, MacDonald was a key figure in the small but effective New Zealand canoeing force of the 1980s.

For all Barry Magee's achievements both as an athlete and as a coach, one event stands out: an event that he did not win.

Dubbed “The Man With the Golden Arm”, Massey was a dominant figure in national softball and it was largely through his expertise and efforts that the sport gained national attention.

There could have been no greater praise for Matthews than to be dubbed “the Nurmi of the Empire” after the great Finn, Paavo Nurmi, who dominated middle and long-distance running in the 1920s.

McConachy had an extraordinary sporting career that was as long as an average lifetime and rarely has New Zealand produced a sportsman of such enduring excellence.

Bruce McLaren was a talented, innovative motor racing driver whose success was measured by four Formula One grand prix wins from 103 starts and perhaps more notably, by founding the most successful team in Formula One history.

Regarded by many as the epitome of the hard, rugged New Zealand rugby forward, Colin Meads's international career lasted from 1957 until 1971 and he continued playing first-class rugby for another two years after that.

When the New Zealand team left for the Montreal Olympics in 1976, the hockey team was seldom mentioned as possible medalists.

When it comes to commitment to and passion for a sport, Lorraine Moller sets the standards.

Ronnie Moore partnered his father Les in speedway riding in Christchurch as a 10-year-old, including the spectacular “Wall of Death” which entailed riding on an almost perpendicular track.

Morgan became the first New Zealander to win an Olympic gold medal while competing for New Zealand.

Anthony Mosse was the standardbearer for New Zealand swimming through the 1980s.

Motz, a big man in stature and reputation, was the first New Zealander to take 100 test wickets.

Ces Mountford achieved seemingly everything in a spectacular rugby league career as a player and coach except play for his country.

His proper name was Thomas William Murphy but he was known more as “Torpedo Billy”, the only New Zealand-born boxer (he was born in Auckland) to hold a world boxing title.

Nepia was the 19-year-old sensation on the Invincible All Blacks’ tour of Britain and Canada in 1924-25.

Netball was still known as basketball when the New Zealand team set off for the second world championships, in Perth in 1967.

Many in the team had played in the previous world championships, in Singapore in 1983, in which they were beaten in the final by Australia, and vowed that the championships in Glasgow in 1987 would be vastly different.

New Zealand's win in the world crosscountry championships in Morocco in 1975 was one of the greatest, if little-known, performances of New Zealand athletics.

For more than five years and something like 550 matches, the legendary Pakistani squash player Jahangir Khan was not only unbeaten, he was seen to be that rarest of sporting breeds, unbeatable. And then along came a tall New Zealander, Ross Norman.

Kathleen Nunneley was far and away the best woman tennis player in New Zealand in the late 1890s and early 1900s and though the game has changed out of sight, could still lay claim to being the best New Zealand has had.

Lance O’Sullivan is supreme among jockeys who have etched their names in the long and illustrious history of thoroughbred racing in New Zealand.

It’s not too often that modern sports people admit to answering the call of Queen and country first, but that’s what Onny Parun did in 1975 when he chose to play for New Zealand in a Davis Cup tie instead of playing in a tournament in Holland.

Arthur Espie Porritt, first Baron of Wanganui and Hampstead, led a life of achievement as a sportsman, a sports administrator, a surgeon, a health administrator, a writer and as the first New Zealander to become governor-general.

From 1500 metres to the marathon, Dick Quax was one of the outstanding New Zealand and world athletes through the 70s.

For older New Zealanders, the lasting image of the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 is of the smiling face of Norman Read as he strode into the Melbourne Cricket Ground to win the 50km walk, one of two gold medals won by New Zealanders in Melbourne.

Eve Rimmer had been a school long jump recordholder and sprint champion before a car crash at the age of 15 left her a paraplegic.

Allison Roe was many things to many people during her stunning athletics career, but she was best known in New Zealand and internationally for winning the famed Boston and New York Marathons in the same year, 1981.

Though he rarely competed internationally and never raced at Olympic or Empire Games, Randolph Rose could lay claim to being New Zealand’s best-known athlete in the 1920s.

Don Rowlands had at least two careers in the sport he graced: one as a top-level competitor and the other as an administrator and organiser without peer.

Lesley Rumball, or Lesley Nicol as she was for much of her glittering career, played top-level netball for more than a decade and she was the first to play a hundred games for New Zealand.

New Zealand had some great runners in the 20s and 30s — Lovelock pre-eminent, Randolph Rose, Cecil Matthews and Savidan.

Bob Scott was described by rugby commentator Winston McCarthy as a footballing genius, and there would be few who would disagree.

"Bronco" Seeling was an outstanding forward in the Original All Blacks of 1905 and renowned for his tackling and his strength.

“Buck” Shelford captured the imagination of the New Zealand rugby public during his six years in the All Blacks, during which he played 48 times and was unbeaten as test captain between 1988 and 1990.

In the days when woodchopping was a highly popular competitive sport, Ned Shewry was one of the most sought-after of athletes.

During a career crammed with honours, Bob Skelton rode 2129 winners. His first two-mile winner was Lancaster in the 1954 Great Autumn Handicap and 30 years later, he was still among the leading jockeys.

Skinner was one of the great All Black props of the 40s and early 50s but his fame almost entirely centres on his coming out of retirement in 1956 to bolster the New Zealand pack against South Africa in one of the most tumultuous series New Zealand has seen.

One of New Zealand’s alltime greatest lawn bowlers, Skoglund might have been bred to bowl.

Ian Smith, known to his teammates as “Stockley” after one of his given names, was one of the key contributors in a New Zealand cricket golden era in the 1980s.

Three-time Olympic champion and world record-holder, Snell is one of New Zealand’s greatest sports achievers, and some say the greatest.

The New Zealand women’s softball team won the International Softball Federation’s fifth world championships in Taiwan in 1982.

Mark Sorenson first played for New Zealand when he was sixteen and continued for more than twenty years, collecting honour after honour along the way.

Jean Stewart, who married champion swimmer Lincoln Hurring, was the outstanding New Zealand woman swimmer of the early 1950s.

Bert Sutcliffe was regarded, with the Australian Neil Harvey, as the best left-handed batsman of his generation.

“Wai”, as she is universally known, was only in her mid-teens when she entered representative netball for Canterbury and by 1981, she was in the national team.

Alan Thompson was one of the small band of canoeists who rewrote New Zealand Olympic history in the 1980s.

In the exclusive company of the All Blacks of the 60s, Kel Tremain was an exceptional player.

In the West Indies in 1972, Glenn Turner was such a prolific scorer (two successive innings of 259 in Georgetown), the crowds dubbed him “Mistah Runs”.

For three years, Rob Waddell was practically invincible in the single sculls.

Webb was the first of a long line of great New Zealand oarsmen.

Sir Wilson Whineray played 77 matches for New Zealand, including 32 tests, and is regarded as one of the most successful and inspirational captains the All Blacks have had.

Ruben Wiki’s career in rugby league was one of enduring success and excellence, beginning with the Canberra Raiders in 1993 and ending with the New Zealand Warriors fifteen years later.

Even from a different, gentler era, Wilding without dispute remains New Zealand’s greatest tennis player.

Whatever else Bryan Williams achieved in rugby – and he achieved much – the blaze of publicity he gained as a 19-year-old on the All Blacks’ tour of South Africa in 1970 never quite left him.

In the days when women had few events in track and field, Yvette Williams seemed to compete in them all.

As a youngster at school in Invercargill, Jeff Wilson was a wonder of his age on the sporting field, whether rugby, cricket or, so it seemed, anything else he tried.

If Yvette Williams can justifiably be labelled New Zealand’s best woman athlete, Val Young runs her a close second.