Honours and Tributes
Meads is regarded by many as New Zealand's greatest ever rugby player, and was named Player of the Century at the NZRFU Awards dinner in 1999. He is a member of both the International Rugby Hall of Fame and the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. In 2001 Meads was appointed as a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, the second-highest honour in the New Zealand honours system. In May 2009 Meads was elevated to Knighthood when his DCNZM to converted to a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
The trophy contested in New Zealand's domestic competition, the Heartland Championship, is named the Meads Cup in his honour. The All Blacks website states 'As a sporting legend Meads is New Zealand's equivalent of Australia's Sir Donald Bradman or the United States of America's Babe Ruth.'
Read more about this topic: Colin Meads
Famous quotes containing the words honours and/or tributes:
“Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess, that these Honours were more than their Due, and such as their Friends would not believe if they had not been told: Whereas a Man truly proud, thinks the greatest Honours below his Merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a Maxim that whoever desires the Character of a proud Man, ought to conceal his Vanity.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“The fame of heroes owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the tributes paid to them.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)