Herbert Henry Messenger

Herbert Henry Messenger

Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger (12 April 1883 – 24 November 1959) was one of Australasia's first professional rugby footballers, recognised as one of the greatest ever players in either code. Messenger, or 'The Master' as he was dubbed, represented his country in two rugby union tests and seven rugby league tests. He played for New South Wales in the very first rugby match run by the newly-created 'New South Wales Rugby Football League' which had just split away from the established New South Wales Rugby Football Union.

Messenger had a stocky build, and while standing only about 172 cm (5 ft 7') in height, he was a powerful runner of the ball and solid defender. According to his peers the centre's greatest attributes were his unpredictability and astonishing physical co-ordination, coupled with a freakish ability to kick goals from almost any part of the ground. He was a teetotaller and non-smoker during his career and other than breakfast, Messenger would rarely eat before a match.

Read more about Herbert Henry Messenger:  Early Life, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Life After Football, Accolades

Famous quotes containing the words herbert, henry and/or messenger:

    Come, come, my boy, say “Good morning” to your creator. Speak! You’ve got a civil tongue in your head, I know you have because I sewed it back myself.
    Kenneth Langtry, and Herbert L. Strock. Prof. Frankenstein (Whit Bissell)

    The memory loaded with mere bookwork is not the thing wanted—is, in fact, rather worse than useless—in the teacher of scientific subjects. It is absolutely essential that his mind should be full of knowledge and not of mere learning, and that what he knows should have been learned in the laboratory rather than in the library.
    —Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)

    Still let my tyrants know, I am not doomed to wear
    Year after year in gloom, and desolate despair;
    A messenger of Hope comes every night to me,
    And offers for short life, eternal liberty.
    Emily Brontë (1818–1848)