Rugby league has been called the greatest game of all, and ninety-nine years ago last month, its celebrated officiating father was killed amidst one of its most famous victories. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

It was Friday the 21st of August 1925 and the New South Wales rugby league team received an official welcome at Queensland parliament house. It was James Larcombe who gave the official address. Larcombe was a member of parliament, state secretary for railways, later the Queensland treasurer and attorney general, but most importantly of all, he was the president of Queensland Rugby League.

It was Ted Hooper who officially accepted the welcome. Hooper was travelling with the New South Wales team. He was a life member of the New South Wales rugby league, founder of the New South Wales rugby league referees association, and was famously the referee in the first ever rugby league game played in Australasia in 1907. Hooper was a huge figure in the history of the game, he had come to Queensland, and he had no idea that he had only one day left to live.

This was a period of domination by Queensland in the interstate rugby league series. Earlier that year, New South Wales had finally won a match to snap a string of eight consecutive wins by Queensland. The maroons would go onto to win thirteen of sixteen matches in a run of supremacy not matched until recently in rugby league’s State of Origin.

It was on Saturday the 22^nd of August – the day after Hooper had accepted the welcome – that Queensland and New South Wales clashed at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground. Queensland won 26 points to 8, but the real action was at half time.

That’s when Hooper took the field to referee a match between teams representing Brisbane and Ipswich. The two sides were actually made up of referees from the two cities, they played hard to run Hooper ragged, and the spectators took particular delight in seeing referees pummel one another.  

After the game, the twenty-seven referees returned to the dressing room to have a shower together. As Hooper stepped under the water, he collapsed to the floor. This aroused the attention of the other referees and they whistled for first aide. But it was too late – Australia’s first ever rugby league referee had dropped dead and would never blow the whistle again.

Hooper’s body was repatriated to New South Wales and buried with great reverence at Waverley Cemetery in Sydney.

However, that’s not the end of the story. Two days later on the 24th of August 1925, New South Wales had another game to play. This time it was against Ipswich at the North Ipswich reserve, and the Blues were out to avenge the death of their famous referee.

The match was one of the toughest exhibitions of rugby league football ever seen. Stretchers and ambulance bearers were needed to carry off two New South Welshmen. One player that day stood out above all others, and his name was Eric Frauenfelder from Ipswich.

Frauenfelder played with the Brothers club in Ipswich, and represented Ipswich, Queensland, and Australia in a stellar career. He was also a representative cricketer and a state lightweight boxing champion.

Frauenfelder backed-up from playing full-back for Queensland two days earlier. In this match for Ipswich, he was seen to enter one of the rucks in which some scuffling was going on. When he emerged, three New South Wales players were unconscious on the ground.

In failing light and Ipswich just 2 points ahead, two New South Wales players singled out Frauenfelder and charged at him. The referee then lost complete control as the game finished in a brawl.

New South Wales players fullback Gordon Daisley and front-row forward Les “Buller” Hayes, both from the Western Suburbs club in Sydney, were carried off in stretchers. And Frauenfelder, he was ordered off the field.

But the game was over, Ipswich won the match, domination of New South Wales by Queensland teams was sustained, Frauenfelder continued his stellar career – and the death of Australia’s first rugby league referee remained unavenged.

Frauenfelder was made of tough stuff and lived to the grand old age of ninety-two. His last restinmg place can be visited in the Nudgee cemetery on Brisbane’s northside.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
NSW v Queensland in 1927 – Daily Telegraph.
James Larcombe MLA – State Library of Queensland.
Mr E.J. Hooper – Australian Town and Country Journal, Sydney, 29th October 1913, page 51.
Queensland Rugby League team 1925 – Roger’s website
Eric Frauenfelder, Ipswich, Past Brothers Rugby League Club, 1922 – State Library of Queensland.
Gordon Daisley, Western Suburbs – Western Suburbs Archives.
Les “Buller” Hayes, Western Suburbs – Western Suburbs Archives.
Eric Fauenfelder, Nudgee Cemetery, Brisbane – Find a Grave uploaded by Liz R 2020.