You won’t find Ross Harrison’s name up in lights through the upbeat era of the 1980s in Queensland rugby because he was never about grabbing headlines for himself.
It says everything about his selfless service to the game over decades at club and state level when the former service station owner quietly oiled the gears that made stuff work.
He sat on the QRU Management Committee from 1979 and through the 1980s beside the likes of Norbert Byrne, John Breen, Dick McGruther, Lyn Crowley, Jim Lucey and executive director Terry Doyle when they were shaping the game in Queensland.
Harrison’s death on Tuesday at 94 severs one of the last links to that period of forthright administrative direction.
Harrison was made a Life Member of the QRU in 1989 which was worthy recognition for two decades of significant involvement in the game.
For Wests, he filled roles as first grade coach (1969-70), Treasurer (1975), President (1975-76) and most jobs in between as you do at your club.
Being immersed in the game was always Harrison’s great satisfaction which was something he was born into as a rugby-loving Kiwi from Greymouth.
“Dad lived a very full life. He was a sports nut who visited for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne and Australia became his home after that. Rugby union was everything to him as a typical Kiwi,” son Scott said.
“He always worked behind the scenes in the game and that was his nature.”
Even his smile was not overdone as a smirk or bold grin. It was a smile of satisfaction and “job well done by all” when you entered a post-match function at Ballymore and spied Harrison after a Queensland win over NSW or when a vaunted international opponent was toppled.
“He enjoyed halcyon days. Wests’ first premiership in 1977, Queensland thrashing NSW 48-10 in 1979, Queensland rugby’s Centenary celebrations in 1982 and the success of the Wallabies’ 1984 Grand Slam tour gave him some of the greatest thrills of his life,” Scott said.
You can add that moment in 2013 when Harrison was in the room to proudly watch son Scott honoured as a Life Member of Wests.
Likewise, his enjoyment at watching grandson William and granddaughter Rosie playing for Wests at Sylvan Road. Without fuss, Harrison would watch the action in a jaunty flat cap.
In 1972, Harrison coached Wests on their first grand club tour to New Zealand for five games. You asked for a post-match beer and were given a 26 oz bottle and glass in those days.
On the full tour schedule, surfing at Mt Maunganui, golf, a Maori feast, a night at the musical Hair, deep-sea fishing and an afternoon at the racetrack fitted neatly into the itinerary.
In 1974, All Black Grant Batty joined Wests as a guest for a week for the annual pre-season Charity Carnival in Brisbane. Batty and wife Jill were billeted by the Harrisons.
Old school rugby times and Harrison loved them.
Harrison kept an old, quartered Ballymore ball as a prized possession. It will sit perfectly on the coffin of a true rugby man.
A funeral service with held on Wednesday June 3 at 10am at Christ Church Anglican Church, Church St, Boonah
