How the West Was Really Won (Part VI) Quiz

A powerfully built and courageous centre forward, Eric Pearce was a goalscoring freak on the hockey field, using his speed, agility and unerring accuracy to carve holes in the defenses of his opposition. As an indication of his great scoring prowess, at the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome, he scored all of Australia's goals in their 8-1 demolition of Japan.

Commencing his Olympic career at the Melbourne Games (1956) and ending in Mexico City (1968), where he was Australia's flagbearer, he became the first Australian hockey player to compete in four Olympic Games. By the end of his career, he was held up as the finest hockey player to have represented Australia. As a tribute, when the founding members were selected for the launch of Sports Australia's Hall of Fame in 1985, Eric was the only hockey player to be selected.

Born with a severe congenital spinal condition, Louise Sauvage only had limited use of the lower half of her body. This led to a string of operations from an early age and it brought an end to a promising career as a swimmer.

At sixteen, she competed as a wheelchair athlete at the IPC (World Para-Athletics) World Championships in the Netherlands. She would commence her world domination of the sport by winning gold in the 100 metre wheelchair sprint. At the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics she took home gold medals in the 100, 200 and 400 metres and a silver in the 800 metres. Four years later, in Atlanta, she worked at the longer distances, winning gold in the 400, 800, 1,500 and 5,000 metre events. At Sydney in 2000, she would lose her first race over the 800 metres in eight years but, recovered from that disappointment to win gold in the 1,500 and 5,000 metre races. She would complete her Paralympic career in Athens in 2004, winning silver medals in the 400 and 800 metres. Other highlights included being crowned the International Female Wheelchair Athlete of the Year in 1999 and 2000 and named as the Young Australian of the Year in 1998.

Tall and willowy, and encouraged by her primary school teacher, Christine became one of the first female high jumpers to utilize the "Fosbury Flop" technique in Australia. The move paid dividends as it propelled her to three Olympic Games finals and a Commonwealth Games gold medal.

In 1976 Christine won her first, of what was to become eight, national titles and, in doing so, thought that she'd earned her spot in the Australian Olympic team for the Montreal Games. A justification committee would later overturn her original selection. At the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980 she made the finals, finishing sixth with a jump of 1.91 metres. She backed this up with a fourth finish at the 1981 World Championships, a silver at the 1982 Commonwealth Games and another place in the final at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

In 1985 Christine revealed her other talent, netball, gaining selection in the Australian team but it was a dream that she had to put aside as her tournament clashed with the World Cup of Athletics. It was a wise move as she produced a career best jump of 1.96 metres in the final, missing out on a medal by the barest of margins. She carried that form into the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh where she won gold and rounded off her career with a seventh placing in the finals at the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988.

Born in Fremantle Ross Dunkerton was a rally driver with a win-at-any-cost attitude. He possessed the skills and determination that would drive him (pun intended) to five Australian Rally Championships in the late 1970s and 80s, two Asia-Pacific Championship wins and a victory in the prestigious Southern Cross Rally.

Arguably Australia's most successful rally driver, he is one of the few Australians to have achieved the FIA's (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) "A" seeded status, was inducted into the Australian Rally Hall of Fame in 2013, the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame in 2018 and presented with the Medal of the Order of Australia that same year.

Brian Griffin would devote thirty years of service to the sport of lacrosse in Australia. During that time, and to the point of his retirement, he would represent both his state and his country more times than any other player.

His impressive career spanned more than 500 games, produced more than 3,000 goals, marked him as Australia's leading goal thrower on the 1962 tour of England and the USA, made him the captain of the side to contest the inaugural World Series in Toronto (1967) and saw him voted as the Most valuable Player in the said series. In 1967 US experts would describe Griffin as the best player in the world (at the time) and this was given additional weight when he was recognized by, and inducted into, the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1972.

Fred Kersley Jr. was the first Western Australian to gain dual licenses to train horses as pacers and as gallopers. Whilst he was a success in both fields, it's his conquests as a trainer and reinsman in harness racing in which he'd made his greatest impact, and that is what we will dwell on here. In WA, the Kersley name is synonymous with harness racing. Fred Snr., along with his brothers Frank, Ron and Keith were a force among the trotting fraternity in the state since the 1940s. That mantle was carried on by Fred Jr and his brother Bill and, now the torch is borne by Fred's four children.

Kersley Jr won the Perth drivers winner's list a record 17 times and he headed the trainer's list 14 times (also a record). He became the second reinsman in Australia to drive 100 winners in a season, a feat he would achieve five times. Fred would win the JD Watts Trophy, an Australia wide award for the most metropolitan wins in a season on four occasions. In the process he set a (then) Australian record of 136 metropolitan winners, during the 1987/88 season.

Oh for a splash of fuel... what could have been.
In his first ever race at the Motocross World Championships in 1989, a relatively unknown Jeff Leisk stunned the crowd by leading from the start until, as the finish line beckoned, he ran out of fuel. With a bigger tank, he would win the next race and follow that up by winning the full round in Finland, and would end the Grand Prix Tour in second place overall. In the process he became the first Australian motocross rider to win a Grand Prix event and, 35 years later, his podium finish for the Tour (overall) remains the only time an Australian has achieved that feat.

Leisk's first major supercross event was conducted at the Bunbury Speedway (Western Australia), where he finished second in the twenty lap feature event. This was the spur that led him to win multiple Australian titles, take on the best in the world and become a household name on both the supercross and motocross tracks around the globe.

Sam Kerr was appointed captain of the Australian women's soccer team, known informally as "The Matildas", in 2019 and is considered to be, not only, one of the finest strikers in the world, but one of her country's finest athletes. In 2023 she kicked her 69th international goal for Australia, leaving her comfortably ahead of Lisa de Vanna's (who retired in 2020) 47 goals, as her nation's leading goal scorer. She is one of the most sought after strikers in the USA's National Women's Soccer League and became the first woman to win the Golden Boot award in three different leagues, on three different continents.

Sam started her senior career with the Perth Glory in 2009 as a mere fifteen year old and, in that same year, made her international debut for Australia. Adding to her list of achievements, she became the first Australian woman to score a hat-trick in a World Cup event, she helped guide her team to victory in the 2010 Asian Cup and captained Australia to fourth place at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo (held in 2021).

Tall and imposing, and blessed with great agility and reflexes, Sally Ironmonger established herself as one of the most feared defenders in netball. A member of the inaugural Perth Orioles (now West Coast Fever) squad and, despite playing only two seasons with the club, she was held in such high regard that she was named as one of the team's "Magnificent Seven" in 2007. Sally would make her international debut for Australia during the 1986 tour of England, played 20 Tests for her country and is a proud winner of a silver medal, as part of the team that contested the 1987 World Cup in Glasgow.

Barbara Wall was the first Australian female squash player to turn professional, doing so in 1973. The following year, despite not being seeded, she would make the final of squash's most prestigious event, the British Open, where she was beaten by the Australian legend Heather McKay. Wall would go on to win the Danish, Irish and Belgian Opens, as well as the South African Champion of Champions event. 1979 would become her watershed year, defeating the short priced favourite, England's Sue Cogswell, in the final of the British Open, representing Australia at the World Team Squash Championships and winning the West Australian Sports Star of the Year Award.

Danny Green did not have his first amateur boxing bout until he was twenty years old, but the promise that he showed was sufficient to earn him a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport in 1998. In 2000 he qualified for the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, going down to the eventual gold medalist, Russia's Alexander Lebziak, in the second round. Turning professional soon after, Green would hold the WBC (World Boxing Council) Interim Super-middleweight title from 2003 to 2005, the WBA (World Boxing Association) Light-heavyweight title from 2007 to 2008 and collect the IBO (International Boxing Organization) Cruiserweight title on two separate occasions between 2009 and 2013.

J.J Miller spent 41 years as a jockey and rode more than 2,200 winners in that time. He was a fearless rider who was blessed with superb balance and a coolness of thought while riding in the middle of a pack. However, his riding style was not exactly copybook and, when combined with his highly volatile disposition, it saw John land in a lot of hot water with stewards. This led to disciplinary actions against him on more than 30 occasions, which, essentially, reduced his riding career by approximately seven years.

Miller rode his first winner in 1947 on, what was, just his sixth mount as a jockey, and he would ride his last in 1986. He found success (and victories) in every Australian state as well as countries such as Ireland, Singapore, England and Mauritius. The high point of his career came in the 1966/67 racing season when he rode the Bart Cummings trained Galilee to victories in three of Australia's biggest races - the Caulfield, Melbourne and Sydney Cups.

Ricciardo was appointed as a full-time member of the Torro-Rosso team in 2012 and then graduated to be the replacement for the retiring Mark Webber in the Red Bull team in 2014. Working as the number two driver to Sebastian Vettel, that year, he recorded three Formula One victories and finished in third place in the Championships.

He would go through the next two seasons without a win, rectifying the situation with victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2016. That year he would again finish the Championship in third place. Still under the Red Bull banner, he secured further victories in 2017 and 2018 before signing with Renault for the next two seasons. In 2021 he joined the team at McLaren and repaid their faith in him with a victory at the Italian Grand Prix. Known for his beaming smile and his novel victory celebration (drinking champagne from his boot), Ricciardo was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2022.

Born into a basketballing family, Luc Longley created history by becoming the first Australian to play in the American National Basketball Association (NBA) and then, took that a step further, by becoming the first Australian to win a NBA Championship.

The 218 centimetre Longley was selected at number seven in the 1991 draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves but was traded to the Chicago Bulls two years later. Luc's major assets were his rebounding skills and his passing ability, with the latter being ideal for a side that contained the likes of Michael Jordan, Scott Pippin and Dennis Rodman. Chicago dominated the 1995/96 regular season, setting a new win/loss standard of 72 wins and only 10 losses. They continued this domination through the finals and, over the next two seasons, completed a hat-trick of Championship wins. Luc would later be traded to the Suns and then the Knicks before a degenerative ankle injury pushed him into an early retirement.

I have cheated here, but just a little. Dennis is not in the WA Hall of Champions, but he is in the Sports Australia Hall of Fame... not as an Australian Rules footballer, in which he was moderately successful, but as a sporting commentator.

Dennis started work as an announcer on Perth commercial radio in 1968 before transferring to the government owned ABC. He moved into television with the Seven Network in 1986, switched to the Nine Network in 2002, and returned to Seven in 2007 where he remained until he retired in 2016. Blessed with a silky smooth voice, immense knowledge of his sports, a dry sense of humour and a happy knack for wordplay, Cometti became the doyen of Australian sports commentary, in a career that spanned almost 50 years.

Best known for his commentary on Australian Rules Football, he also covered the cricket and worked at three Summer Olympic Games, specializing in swimming. He was named Television Caller of the Year by the Australian Football Media, a record eleven times and many of his "Cometti-isms" will live long in the lives of listeners. Some of his phraseology, such as "centimetre perfect" and "he had delusions of adequacy" have become generic amongst his peers, but let's not forget his dry wit. Here are a few examples from the multitude:
"There's Koutoufides - more vowels than possessions today".
(When Jason Gram lost his shorts in a tackle) "It's a stripper-gram" and
"Cassanova would have been jealous of that pick-up".