Immortals and Hall of Fame: The Legacy, The Legends, The Future

On Wednesday night at the Sydney Cricket Ground, rugby league’s 14th Immortal will be crowned, joining Clive Churchill, Reg Gasnier, John Raper, Bob Fulton, Graeme Langlands, Wally Lewis, Arthur Beetson, Andrew Johns, Dave Brown, Dally Messenger, Frank Burge, Norm Provan and Mal Meninga in the game’s most exclusive club.

The gala function will also honour 17 players inducted into the Hall of Fame, comprising 11 men and the first six women to enter the Hall of Fame.

The male inductees are Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk, Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, Les Boyd, Lionel Morgan, Sam Burgess, Benji Marshall, Ben Elias, Steve Renouf and Johnathan Thurston.

The history-making female inductees are Karyn Murphy, Katrina Fanning, Tarsha Gale, Nat Dwyer, Tahnee Norris and Veronica White.

Four contributors will also enter the Hall of Fame - administrators John Quayle and Ken Arthurson and broadcasters Frank Hyde and David Morrow, while Bill Harrigan and Col Pearce will become the first referees to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Wayne Bennett and Jack Gibson will become the first coaches inducted into the Hall of Fame.

pan66.com takes a look back at the history of the Immortals and outlines the process going forward for induction into the Hall of Fame.

The Legacy, The Legends

When did the Immortals start?

The Immortals was created by Rugby League Week magazine to honour the game’s greatest ever players. RLW managing editor Ian Heads commissioned legendary broadcaster and former player Frank Hyde, renowned journalist Tom Goodman and coaching doyen Harry Bath to be the judges. The judges requested that they choose only from players they had seen play, so the decision was made to choose only from Australia’s post-WWII players.

The first Immortals

On July 2, 1981, the Immortals issue of Rugby League Week hit the news stand, with the four originals – Clive Churchill, Reg Gasnier, John Raper and Bob Fulton – standing tall in their Australian uniforms on the hallowed turf of the Sydney Cricket Ground. The iconic photo of the first four Immortals had been snapped late in June and the issue of RLW went on sale the next week, with more than 80,000 copies sold. In RLW, the magazine’s NSW editor Peter Peters captured the atmosphere of the occasion of perfectly: “The sun shone brightly over the famous old ground as if to pay nature’s tribute to Australia’s greatest post-War players”. He also noted that the four champions “looked fit enough to play, proud in their stature as if they were carved from green and gold stone”.

Who has been inducted since then?

In 1999 Graeme Langlands and Wally Lewis became Immortals, followed by Arthur Beetson in 2003, Andrew Johns in 2012, and then in 2018 the NRL crowned five new Immortals in Mal Meninga, Norm Provan, Dally Messenger, Dave Brown and Frank Burge. The decision was made in 2018 to include players from the pre-World War era for the first time allowing Messenger, Burge and Brown to be recognised for their incredible achievements along with Dragons colossus Provan and modern marvel Meninga. The five legends were inducted at a glittering ceremony at the SCG, the venue again in 2024 when the 14th Immortal will be honoured.

What are the criteria to become an Immortal?

A player must be retired three years to be eligible to enter Hall of Fame. A player must be in the Hall of Fame to be eligible for Immortal status.

How does the Hall of Fame work?

The Hall of Fame was set up in 2008 and currently has 110 members with 17 more to be added on Wednesday night. The most recent inductees were Danny Buderus, Stacey Jones, Ruben Wiki and Craig Young in 2019. Coaches, referees and members of the media are also included in the ‘Contributor’ category with the voice of rugby league Ray Warren, pioneering administrator JJ Giltinan and legendary journalist Peter Frilingos inducted in 2019.

The Hall of Fame cycle

• Two male players be inducted into the Hall of Fame per year.
• One female player be inducted into the Hall of Fame per year.
• Two coach inductions per four-year cycle.
• Two referee inductions per four-year cycle.
• Three contributor (Print Media, Broadcast Media, Administrator) inductions per four-year cycle.
• One Immortal induction per four-year cycle.