Dan Dempsey (15 January 1902 – 9 January 1960) was an Australian
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 11 ...
national
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
and
Queensland state representative player. He played his career at and is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.
Biography
Club career
He played with the Toowoomba side in 1924-25. Alongside
Herb Steinohrt
Herbert Walt Steinohrt (21 October 1897 – 27 December 1985) was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s and 1930s as a front row forward for the Australian national team. He played in 9 Tests between 1928 and 1932 ...
,
Tom Gorman and
Duncan Thompson
Duncan Fulton Thompson MBE (14 March 1895 – 17 May 1980) was an Australian veteran of both WWI and WWII and a rugby league footballer, coach and administrator. He was wounded on active service in WWI and has been named amongst the natio ...
Dempsey was in the Toowoomba sides which beat all comers including Sydney premiers Souths, Brisbane, Ipswich and visiting representative sides including New South Wales, Victoria, Great Britain and New Zealand.
In the 1930s he played in the
Ipswich Rugby League for the Tivoli club, and was a major influence in the years 1933-1935 when Ipswich dominated the
Bulimba Cup, the triangular series played between the city representative sides from Brisbane,
Toowoomba
Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...
and Ipswich.
Representative career
Dempsey played in all three Tests of the 1928 domestic
Ashes series and in the first two Tests of the 1932 domestic series. In the famous "
Battle of Brisbane
The Battle of Brisbane was a riot between United States military personnel on one side and Australian servicemen and civilians on the other, in Brisbane, Queensland's capital city, on 26 and 27 November 1942, during which time the two nations w ...
" Test of 1932, Dempsey was forced off the field with a broken arm early in the second half. Dempsey, his arm placed in splints, began weeping on the touchline because both the ambulanceman and the team's manager,
Harry Sunderland
Harry Sunderland (23 November 1889 – 15 January 1964) was an Australian rugby league football administrator and journalist.
Sunderland was born in Gympie, Queensland in 1889. From 1913 to 1922, Sunderland was the Queensland Rugby League's ...
wouldn't let him back into the game. He is listed on the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo No.135.
He made two
Kangaroo tours:
1929-30 where he played in one Test and nine tour matches and
1933-34 playing one Test and eleven minor games. All up Dempsey played in four
Ashes series against Great Britain.
Accolades
In February 2008, Dempsey was named in the list of Australia's
''100 Greatest Players'' (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the
NRL and
ARL
ARL may refer to:
Military
* US Navy hull classification symbol for repair ship
* Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK
* United States Army Research Laboratory
* ARL 44, a WWII French tank
Organizations
* Aero Research Limited, a UK adhesives comp ...
to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.
![1932 Kangaroos](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/1932_Kangaroos.jpeg)
In 2008,
rugby league in Australia
Rugby league in Australia has been one of Australia's most popular sports since it started being played there in 1908. It is the dominant winter football code in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. In 2009, it was the most watched spor ...
's centenary year, Dempsey was named at hooker in the Toowoomba and South West Team of the Century.
References
Sources
*
Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) ''The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players'', Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney
* Andrews, Malcolm (2006) ''The ABC of Rugby League'' Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney
* Fagan, Sean (2000–2006) RL1908.com
Queensland Representatives at qrl.com.au
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dempsey, Dan
1902 births
1960 deaths
Australian rugby league players
Australia national rugby league team players
Queensland rugby league team players
Rugby league hookers
Rugby league players from Queensland
Toowoomba Clydesdales players