Jack Hickey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Joseph Hickey (1887 - 1950) was a pioneer Australian rugby union and rugby league player and represented his country at both sports. He was one of the Australia's early dual code rugby internationals.

Hickey toured Britain and North America with the Wallabies captained by Chris McKivat in 1907-08. He earned two Test caps against Wales and England on the tour and was a member of the Olympic gold medal winning Wallabies at the 1908 London games.

On his return to Australia he joined the fledgling code of rugby league along with 13 of his Olympic teammates. He played in both rugby league Tests against Great Britain in 1910 when Australia hosted the tourists.

Hickey made his international league debut in the First Test in Sydney on 18 June 1910. Four of his former Wallaby team mates also debuted that day John Barnett, Bob Craig, Charles Russell and Chris McKivat - making them collectively Australia's 11th to 15th dual code internationals. This repeated a similar occurrence two years earlier when five former Wallabies in Micky Dore, Dally Messenger, Denis Lutge, Doug McLean snr and Johnny Rosewell all debuted for the Kangaroos in the first ever Test against New Zealand.

[edit] Sources

• Whiticker, Alan (2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney