Backo’s legacy assured as Maroons mourn ‘Slammin’ Sam
- FOGS
- Aug 14
- 5 min read
Sam Backo is being remembered as a wonderful man and outstanding footballer who brought joy to all who knew him.
Backo, a former Queensland prop forward, died in Cairns on Sunday, August 3 while surrounded by family after a protracted illness at the age of 64.
A larger-than-life character, Backo played six Tests for Australia and seven State of Origin games for his beloved Maroons.
He also turned out for 115 games for Canberra and 20 with Brisbane, while also having a stint in Super League and playing 18 matches for Leeds.
Backo was the son of Dr Evelyn Scott AO who was highly regarded for her work as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advocate and campaigner for the 1967 referendum.
He was passionate about his Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and South Sea Islander culture. In one of his later interviews with the FOGS’ Queenslander Magazine in 2022, Backo spoke fondly of the work he did with TRACQS in Kuranda, helping to co-ordinate a community development program to assist those recently released from jail.
On the football field he was ahead of his time in many respects. He was known as “Slammin Sam” for his penchant for giving defenders an almighty wallop and slamming the ball down over the tryline.
For a prop he found the tryline often, as evidenced by his three tries in Origin and three for the Kangaroos at a phenomenal strike rate for a front-rower. On the Ashes tour of 1989 he scored in three consecutive Tests, the first Australian forward to do so. He also scored 15 tries for the Raiders, including six in one season in the 1987 season when he was a key figure in the club’s surge to their first grand final.
Backo was a winner. His two series for the Maroons in 1988 and 1989 were both comprehensive victories largely inspired by himself. In the 1988 series he became the first, and remains only, prop to win consecutive man of the match awards in Origin.
Former Maroons captain Trevor Gillmeister was a teammate of Backo’s who remains in awe of his capabilities for a 115kg and 188cm giant.
“Sam had amazing footwork for a big bloke. It was a bit of a shimmy that he had. It was a bit different to step,” Gillmeister recalled.
“He’d get to the line and shimmy and get in between blokes. He was really good at that."
“The benefit of having blokes like Sam in the side was that you’d take one look at him and it would just give you more confidence.
“I loved playing with him and I played against him when he was at Canberra and I was at the Roosters. He was such a tough bloke to bring down.”
FOGS executive chairman Gene Miles said Backo was pivotal in the series win in 1988 and 1989 for the Maroons.
"Sam was a wonderful player for Australia and Queensland, where he was always entertaining in our team bus with his dry humour,” Miles said.
“He was an old-fashioned front-rower but very quick for his size too. He always made plenty of yards every time he took the ball up and back in those days they never got interchanged.
"You just knew he would outplay the opposition and from those fantastic Origin displays he got picked to play for Australia.
"There was not a guy in Queensland camp that didn't like Sam. He was such a loveable big unit.”
Gillmeister enjoyed Backo’s company in the sheds and as a roomie.
“We all loved the camaraderie in the sheds after a game and there was nothing better than seeing the smile on Sam’s face when we won,” he said.
“He had a distinctive laugh. You could him for two blocks away when he was laughing … and he laughed often. He didn’t mind taking the piss out of himself which is rare these days. He was a great bloke to be around.
“I roomed with him one year and that was a hell of an experience. He was just a character who never took himself too seriously and enjoyed life.”
Backo emerged around the same time as Australian fast bowler Merv Hughes and both became cult figures with their bristling moustaches.
“Sam said to me one day, ‘I reckon you’d look good with a mo one day Gilly’. I said, ‘no, I don’t think so’,” Gillmeister chuckled.
Backo had an endearing personality that could handle banter flying in his direction.
"We had a lot of fun with him,” Miles recalled.
“He had a special spot at the back of the team bus with all the big forwards. I'd sit up front with Wally (Lewis) and with all the windows shut we would whack the back heaters on high heat and Sam and Martin Bella would blow up. All we could hear from the back was, 'turn that off'.
"We'd train and get straight on the bus to head to the team hotel because the buffet lunch was on.”
Backo’s stature in the game was recognised in a wonderful way in 2008 when he was named, along with one of his heroes Arthur Beetson, in the ARL Indigenous Team of the Century.
Beetson was an Indigenous trailblazer who inspired his people and Backo told Queenslander Magazine in 2022 that he also saw himself as an example.
“I played for my family and my pop. He was the one who raised me,” he said.
Backo showed that with his actions and his work in later life assisting those who had fallen on tough times.
“I am helping out my mob,” he once said of his work.
“I assist people when they come out of jail and hook them up to a job network.
The Indigenous population is over-represented in the jails, as you know. I help them get off the merry-go-round.”
Backo loved his time with the Maroons and playing alongside the great Wally Lewis. It was one reason why he lifted to another level in game two of the 1988 series when Lewis was sin-binned and cans started raining on Lang Park.
“I really couldn’t believe it when the cans started flying,” Backo said.
“Wally was the golden-haired boy. I enjoyed playing with all the players I played with at all levels but when I played for Queensland it was for my state and my mates.”
Backo will be greatly missed by his large family, many friends and the Rugby League community. He will forever be remembered and revered as FOG #56.
