Albertus "Bert" John Eckhoff (18 October 1901 – 9 December 1967) was a professional New Zealand

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1920s. He played at representative level for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

( Heritage № 200),

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and

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

, as a , or , i.e. number 8 or 10, or 9, during the era of contested

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Rugby career

Bert Eckhoff began his career playing club rugby for the Zingari-Richmond club in

in 1922. He made 5 appearances for the Otago B side that same season. He was listed in the reserves to play

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

for the full

side but did not take the field. In 1923 he was in the reserves to play for Otago in further matches and made his debut coming on for an injured player in their match with Auckland on 1 September. He then also played against

North Otago North Otago in New Zealand covers the area of Otago between Shag Point and the Waitaki River, and extends inland to the west as far as the village of Omarama (which has experienced rapid growth as a developing centre for astronomy and for glid ...

a month later. In 1924 while playing a club match for Zingari-Richmond against Alhambra on June 21 he was alleged to have kicked an opponent in the chest as he lay on the ground following a scrum. A lengthy meeting was held by the Otago union looking into the matter involving numerous witnesses as they sought to find the offending player. Eventually it was concluded that Eckhoff was the offender and after a further period of debate it was decided to suspend him until July 1926. Soon after this Eckhoff switched to rugby league which at that time did not recognise suspensions in the rugby code as it does today. Despite multiple appeals the union stuck to their original decision.

Switch to rugby league

In 1924 Eckhoff joined the newly formed City Rovers club based in Dunedin though they did not play any matches as it was the tail end of the season. He was selected to play for the Otago side against Canterbury which they won on September 6, and he was again in the victorious side which defeated the same opponents a month later on October 4. During the 1932 season Eckhoff decided to retire from playing and to make himself available as a referee. However he was soon drawn out of retirement to play the remainder of the year for City who were having a strong season. In so doing he brought up his 100th appearance for City. He retired at the end of the season and refereed senior matches each week throughout 1933 and 1934 before the competition in Otago ceased entirely.

International honours

Eckhoff represented

in 1928 in the 3rd test against

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. He was selected for the 1930 NZ tour of Australia where he was appointed vice-captain.

References

External links

Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eckhoff, Bert New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players Otago rugby union players South Island rugby league team players Otago rugby league team players Place of birth missing Place of death missing Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows 1901 births 1967 deaths