National Rugby League’s Magic Round supporters in Brisbane this weekend should be careful following this gruesome death of an Ipswich player 101 years ago. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

The year 1925 is really significant in rugby league history because that’s the first year of the Bulimba Cup which for 50 years was the premier competition in Queensland. It was a round robin competition between representative teams from Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba, and cross-border expansion even saw Lismore included for a while.

And so it was on Saturday the 27th of June 1925, the Ipswich rugby league team and hundreds of supporters travelled up the range for the Bulimba Cup match against Toowoomba. Brisbane had already been eliminated from contention and excitement was so great that the attendance was expected to break the record of over 10,000 set against England the year before. Mr Ned Fortescue, who was the General Manager of Queensland Brewery Limited which donated the cup, was there to make the presentation to the winners.

Ipswich sporting royalty back then included the highly respected Doyle family of North Ipswich and the formidable Doyle brothers.

Jack Doyle was an Ipswich cricket and rugby league selector, and manager of both the Ipswich and Queensland rugby league teams. A few years earlier he had a narrow escape when a bullet fired into his home at The Terrace, North Ipswich, opposite the cricket reserve, just missed him and hit a chair in his lounge room.

Big Bill Doyle was an outstanding cricketer and an even better rugby league forward and Ipswich representative. Pat Doyle was a brass finisher at the Ipswich railway workshops, a forward for Past Brothers rugby league club and an Ipswich representative. And don’t forget Dick Doyle who was a darn good cricketer.

I’ll cut to the chase, and the bad news for Ipswich was that Toowoomba won 18-13. They fully deserved the honour of being the premier rugby league team of Queensland, and inaugural winners of the magnificent silver Bulimba Cup.

After the match, John, Bill and Patrick Doyle, and hundreds of disappointed rugby league enthusiasts boarded the special train from Toowoomba to go home to Ipswich.

When the train reached Helidon at about 9.30pm, a number of them were standing on the carriage platform waiting to get off for a refreshment at the station.  The train hadn’t yet come to a stop when a some of them jumped from the train.

Among them was Pat Doyle, he slipped on the platform and fell backwards between two carriages. A wheel rolled over his body and he was horribly mutilated. He was taken on the train, but it was obvious even before they reached Gatton that death had been instantaneous. His body continued onto Ipswich where he and his parents lived in Lowry Street.

Pat was extremely popular and at 29 years of age was said to be “the finest specimen of Australian manhood.”

His funeral was one of the biggest ever seen in Ipswich. The next day the Ipswich Vice-Regal Band opened its recital in Queen’s Park with the hymn, “Nearer My God to Thee” as a mark of respect to Pat. This was the same hymn played on the Titanic as she went down thirteen years earlier.

So if you’re enjoying Magic Round this weekend, just be careful, and spare a thought for Ipswich’s Patrick Francis Doyle who 101 years ago was probably Queensland’s first ever rugby league fatality.

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

Photo credits:
Pat Doyles Last Ride – Harold Peacock with Copilot.
Bulimba Cup 1926-1972 – National Museum of Australia.
Ned Fortescue – Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, 27th June 1925, page 9 – repaired with Copilot.
Toowoomba’s Herb Steinohrt tackling Ipswich player Alan Sherman in the Bulimba Cup 1930s – State Library of Queensland.
Patrick Francis Doyle, Ipswich Cemetery – Anne – here lies 2018 via Find a Grave website.