Jim Matthews (Leighton, NSW) was a rugby league footballer who played for the Canterbury Bulldogs, Eastern Suburbs clubs in the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) competition.
Matthews, a five-eight, played 17 matches for the Canterbury Bankstown side in the years (1962–63) before joining Eastern Suburbs the following season at a time when Easts were experiencing the bleakest period in the clubs history, they won just 2 matches in ’64, 3 in ’65 and were winless in ’66. Under new coach, Jack Gibson, Matthews was appointed captain and in a dramatic turn around led Easts to consecutive semi finals. At the end of the 1968 season he left Easts and returned to rural NSW where he played out the remainder of his career in the Illawarra competition.
Said to be a tough and rugged player, the five – eight, is recognised as Eastern Suburbs 543rd player. Matthews played 70 matches for the Sydney Roosters and scored 138 points, coming from 8 tries, 53 goals and 4 field goals.
Famous quotes containing the words jim and/or matthews:
“Just kids! That’s about the craziest argument I’ve ever heard. Every criminal in the world was a kid once. What does it prove?”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Jim Bird, The Blob, responding to the suggestion that they not lock up the teens pulling the alien “prank,” (1958)
“I was supposed to retire when I was seventy-two years old, but I was seventy-seven when I retired. On my seventy-sixth birthday a lady had triplets. It was quite a birthday present.”
—Josephine Riley Matthews (b. 1897)