Thomas Owen Baxter (c. 1930 – 26 May 2014) was a New Zealand former

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 represented

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 ...

in twenty nine tests between 1949 and 1956. In 2007 he was named in the

New Zealand Rugby League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood ''T ...

's Team of the Century.

Playing career

Baxter, an

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 ...

representative, first made the

New Zealand national rugby league team The New Zealand national rugby league team (Māori: Tīma rīki motu Aotearoa) has represented New Zealand in rugby league since 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of ...

in 1949. During the

1951 French rugby league tour of Australia and New Zealand The 1951 French rugby league tour of Australia and New Zealand was the first ever tour of Australasia by any French sports team in history. Puig Aubert captained the France national rugby league team who played 28 matches in total in both Austra ...

, Baxter was selected to play for both

and

at centre. Baxter went on to play in twenty nine tests in the next seven years, scoring six tries. In 1955 he was made captain and led the Kiwis out on ten occasions, including on the 1955–56 tour of Great Britain and France. In 1959 he was Western Districts (a combination of Mount Albert and

Point Chevalier Point Chevalier (; commonly known as Point Chev and an original colonial name of Point Bunbury after Thomas Bunbury) is a residential suburb and peninsula in the city of Auckland in the north of New Zealand. It is located five kilometres to th ...

)

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

and led the team to

Auckland Rugby League The Auckland Rugby League (ARL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is responsible for rugby league in the region, including both club and school rugby league. It began in 1910 when the fi ...

Fox Memorial Trophy and Rukutai Shield victories as well as winning a national tournament held to celebrate the ARL's fiftieth anniversary and an 8–7 victory over the

New South Wales Rugby League The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...

's previously unbeaten champion

St. George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until the ...

side.Coffey, John and Wood, Bernie. (2009) ''Auckland, 100 years of rugby league, 1909–2009''. , p. 177. In 1964 Baxter was the coach of the new Howick senior team.

Awards

Baxter was inducted as a

"Legend of League" in 1995 and is an

Immortal.Stacey Jones, Auckland Rugby League Immortal
''est1995.co.nz'', 21 September 2003 Baxter was inducted into the

New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame The New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame is an organisation commemorating New Zealand's greatest sporting triumphs. It was inaugurated as part of the New Zealand sesquicentenary celebrations in 1990. Some 160 members have been inducted into the Hall o ...

in 1996. In 2007 he was named in the New Zealand Rugby League Team of the Century at centre.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Tommy 2014 deaths New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand national rugby league team players Auckland rugby league team players Rugby league centres New Zealand national rugby league team captains New Zealand rugby league coaches Howick Hornets coaches Richmond Bulldogs players Rugby league players from Auckland