The epic upset of the British and Irish Lions in 1971 has turned into a 54-year love story for Queensland’s flyhalf-of-the-day Geoff Richardson.
As a young footballer, he could never have imagined how his life would change on that midweek afternoon in May at Ballymore.
Fast forward to 2025 and history beckons again. The first big challenge of the Lions tour is upon us. As hooker Matt Faessler said, the Reds aren't into participant ribbons for Wednesday night at Suncorp Stadium.
All those city office workers who took sickies to slip off to the footy in 1971 were royally rewarded. Over 80 minutes, the underdogs in maroon became Lion-tamers with a 15-11 win.
Lions luminaries Willie John McBride, Mike Gibson, David Duckham, Ian "Mighty Mouse" McLauchlan and captain John Dawes all felt the sting of a loss they never expected.
It was Richardson’s debut for Queensland. He’d only found himself in Queensland by accident or rather national service.
He’d been swept from country NSW to Townsville for army training in those Vietnam War years.
It was a very 1970s-style promotion when young Sue Francis performed the ceremonial kick-off as Queensland’s Miss Rugby 1971.
At the post-match function, Richardson and Miss Francis got to chatting. We are sure it was about the finer arts of catch-and-pass.
“I don’t think Geoff’s line was as corny as ‘I can kick the ball better than you’ but we met and three years later we were married,” Sue said with a smile.
They were married in the old Murrayfield Room at Ballymore. Sue still has her maroon Miss Rugby 1971 sash.
Richardson’s excellent showing that day pitched him into a Test debut later that season.
The Queensland players of 1971 were in a high mood after their stirring deeds on the field in front of 12,000 fans.
It’s where the famous tale began of how the Lions’ lion mascot found a new home at Ballymore. It still resides 54 years later.
It’s stuffed, just like the Lions were by full-time that day.
The Lions tried to explain away the loss via stories of jetlag and lingering hangovers from a long night on the lash in Hong Kong during an excruciatingly long travel schedule.
Any London-Brisbane flight via Frankfurt, Tehran, Delhi and Hong Kong will have your head spinning but the fact always remains this was the cream of Test players from four nations.
"I was on the field. I wouldn't say I was playing. All I wanted to do at half-time was lie down," McBride said in Terry O'Connor's 1970s tour book, How The Lions Won.
On the Queensland side, you had young Jeff McLean, who was pulling beers in his father’s pub on the morning of the game before throwing his gear together to play on the wing.
It was no easy thing getting into the ground for the unsung Queensland players.
"There was such a traffic jam that the coppers stopped us at the gate at Ballymore and weren't going to let our car in,'' McLean said as gathered for the book.
"(Reserve flanker) Jules Guerassimoff was with me and said to the policeman: 'Have you ever seen this many people riot? No, but you will, because we're the players'.''
Rugby writer Frank O’Callaghan, in The Courier-Mail, saluted the team.
“A win over the Lions is a high point in Rugby,” he wrote.
“The very vigour of their play and some beautifully placed high punts at times drove the Lions to panic stations. In defence, the Queenslanders were heroic against a tricky, fleet set of backs.
“Queensland forwards Stuart Gregory, a giant in the lineouts, Dave Dunworth, Alan Skinner, Michael Flynn and Mick Freney did valiant deeds.”
The Queenslanders missed several tries when handling and passing let them down or Lions cover defence arrived.
The boot amassed all the points including two field goals from fullback Lloyd Graham. One was a monster from halfway with the heavy leather ball of the day.
“It got longer by the telling until I'd kicked it from over the creek in Finsbury Park,'' Graham quipped.
“I was taught to kick field goals so it didn’t surprise me when it went over.
“We knew how good the Lions were, they nearly scored from the kick-off and they had the best pack in the world as they proved by winning the Test series in New Zealand that followed.
“We just didn’t give them too much room to move so our forward pack deserved a lot of the credit for a great win.”
How sweet the victory was. Queensland captain Barry Honan was back teaching maths and physics at Marist College Ashgrove the next day but the Wallaby centre still remembers the Lions match as a wonderful finale to his representative career.
"I didn't drink. The first drink of alcohol on my lips was a champagne in the dressing room after that win,'' Honan, 78, recalled.
Honan retold the story of that memorable day to the current Reds team when ushered into the Queensland dressing room at Suncorp Stadium for the jersey presentation before today’s captain’s run.
Paul Carozza (1989), Daniel Herbert (2011) and James Hanson (2013) shared the jersey presentations as Vintage Reds from previous tour clashes against the Lions.
"I played nine Tests but to be honest that day against the Lions was probably the highlight of my rugby career,” Honan said to the team.
“We’ll have players from 1971 for a reunion in the stands on Wednesday night. We’ve been dining off that game for 54 years.”
Reds skipper Jock Campbell took in Honan’s words.
“The thing that resonated with me was hearing that these players of 1971 had a match that lived with them for the rest of their lives,” Campbell said.
After his address, Honan added a lighter touch: “They were the true amateur days. I was back at work the next day and got a bill from the Queensland Rugby Union a few weeks later for jerseys I'd swapped.”
For decades, Queensland rugby displayed the prized symbol of that day in the trophy cabinet outside the old Murrayfield Room or on the upstairs bar of the Queensland Rugby Club.
The lion mascot of 1971 is doing so many proud laps of the function circuit this month that he needs a manager to sweep up some healthy appearance fees.
It is the lion mascot that Dawes presented post-match.
“They had their stuffed lion to present to the first team that beat them on tour,” Graham recalled.
“The Lions weren't planning to lose any yet they were handing it to us after the first game before they even got to New Zealand.”
In all the old fairytales, the hero wins the epic battle and rides off with the princess. For Geoff Richardson, it was a true story.
